SonicOS 7.1 SD-WAN
About SD-WAN
SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) provides software-based control over wide area network (WAN) connections. SonicOS SD-WAN offers these features:
- SD-WAN Interface Groups
- WAN and VPN
- Scalable from one to N interfaces
- Dynamic path selection based on:
- Pre-defined Lowest Latency, jitter, or packet loss
- User-defined thresholds based on any combination of 1 or more of latency, jitter, or packet loss criteria
- Application-aware routing
- Path SLA (Service-Level Agreement) Probes for metrics
- Connection-based traffic distribution
- Automatic connection failover over VPN
- Local or Centralized management via GMS or Network Security Manager.
SD-WAN is best used for specific traffic types and/or applications requiring dynamically chosen optimal destination interfaces depending on how the network paths are behaving. To operate well, each application has a certain requirement from the network path. For example, the network quality for VoIP to operate well requires the optimal latency be 100 ms or less while a latency of 150 ms or higher results in choppy calls. SD-WAN helps in such scenarios by first dynamically measuring the various network SLA metrics, such as latency, jitter and packet loss on multiple network paths. SD-WAN then compares these metrics with the SLA threshold for a particular traffic flow and determines the optimal network that meets the flow’s network quality accordingly.
Elements of SD-WAN
SD-WAN Groups
SD-WAN Groups are logical groups of interfaces that can be used for load-balancing as well as dynamic path selection based on the performance criterion through each interface path. You can create your own custom groups.
Constraints for SD-WAN Groups
- Group need to have at-least one member interface
- Groups cannot have mix of WAN, Numbered Tunnel interface and Unnumbered Tunnel Interface
- Groups cannot share member interfaces with other groups.
Constraints for Member Interfaces
- Member interfaces can only be WAN, Numbered Tunnel Interface or Unnumbered Tunnel Interface
- Member interfaces cannot be Wire mode or L2 bridge interfaces
- Maximum member interfaces per group – 10.
. For more information, see section SD-WAN Groups
SLA Probes
SD-WAN SLA Probes are used to determine performance metrics such as latency, jitter, packet loss for a Network path. These are similar to Network Monitor Probes. SonicOS supports the ICMP and TCP probe types. A SD-WAN probe can be used by multiple Path Selection profiles. For more information, see section SLA Probes.
SLA Class Objects
SD-WAN SLA Class Objects is used to configure the desired performance characteristics for the application/traffic categories. These objects are used in the Path Selection Profile to automate the selection of paths based on these metrics.
The default Performance Class Objects are:
- Lowest Jitter
- Lowest Latency
- Lowest Packet Loss
Custom class object can be configured with the thresholds that best meet the needs of your application/traffic categories with Performance Class Objects. For more information, see section SLA Class Objects.
Path Selection Profiles
Path Selection Profiles (PSPs) are the settings that help to determine the network path that satisfies a specific network performance criteria, from a pool of available network paths. The dynamic path selection mechanism is implemented using the PSP settings when associated with Policy Based Routes (PBR). When more than one network path meets the criterion (as per the performance class in the PSP), then traffic is load balanced among the network paths. When associated with a policy-based routing policy, a path selection profile helps select the optimal path among the SD-WAN interfaces for the application/service. For more information, see section Path Selection Profiles
SD-WAN Rules
Dynamic Path selection for specific traffic flows uses Policy Based Routes. A SD-WAN Policy Based Route is used to configure the route policy for the specific source/destination service/App combination, with a corresponding Path Selection Profile that determines the outgoing path dynamically based on the Path Selection Profile. If there is more than one path qualified by the Path Selection Profile, the traffic is automatically load balanced among the qualified paths. If none of the paths are qualified by the path selection profile and the backup interface in the profile is not configured or is down, the route is disabled. For more information, see section SD-WAN Rules.
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