Highly available software defined wide area network
A system for connecting sites of an enterprise organization over a wide area network, including: customer premises equipment (CPE) at sites of the enterprise organization; wherein the CPE are configured to communicate using at least two VPNs over a wide area network (WAN) with other CPEs of the enterprise organization; wherein each CPE is connected by a service provider edge router to the WAN; and wherein each VPN defines a tunnel for routing traffic in the IP layer between the service provider edge routers of any two CPEs.
1. A system for connecting sites of an enterprise organization over a wide area network, comprising:
customer premises equipment (CPE) at sites of the enterprise organization;
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
configuring each CPE to communicate using at least two virtual private networks (VPNs) over a wide area network (WAN) with other CPEs of the enterprise organization;
causing, at least partly by one or more service provider edge routers, each CPE to be connected to the WAN;
defining, by each VPN, respective tunnels for routing traffic in an Internet Protocol (IP) layer between the service provider edge routers of any two of the CPEs;
defining the tunnels such that a physical path between the service provider edge routers in the at least two VPNs are diverse from each other;
configuring the CPEs to monitor a status of connectivity to the other CPEs by injecting probe packets into the tunnels of the VPNs; and
selecting, at least partly in response to the status of connectivity, a VPN for transmission of traffic.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein a first physical path is formed by default and a second physical path is formed to be diverse from the first physical path.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein a central controller instructs the service provider edge routers to form diverse paths.
4. The system of claim 1 , wherein each service provider edge router is preconfigured to form diverse paths for any two tunnels terminated at both ends by the same service provider edge routers.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein each service provider edge router defines loopback addresses for each VPN and creates a tunnel between respective loopback addresses of pairs of service provider edge routers.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein each service provider edge router defines a virtual router for each VPN, and binds each virtual router with a respective loopback address.
7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for the transmission of traffic based on a response to the injected probe packets.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for transmission of traffic based on injected packets from the other CPEs.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for transmission of traffic based on serial numbers of the probe packets received from the other CPEs.
10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for transmission of traffic based on timestamps of the probe packets received from other the CPEs.
11. A method for connecting sites of an enterprise organization over a wide area network, comprising:
Installing customer premises equipment (CPE) at sites of the enterprise organization;
configuring each CPE to communicate using at least two virtual private networks (VPNs) over a wide area network (WAN) with other CPEs of the enterprise organization;
connecting each CPE to the WAN by a service provider edge router;
defining, by each VPN, respective tunnels for routing traffic in an Internet Protocol (IP) layer between the service provider edge routers of any two of the CPEs;
defining the tunnels such that a physical path between the service provider edge routers in the at least two VPNs are diverse from each other;
configuring the CPEs to monitor a status of connectivity to the other CPEs by injecting probe packets into the tunnels of the VPNs; and
selecting, at least partly in response to the status of connectivity, a VPN for transmission of traffic.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein a first physical path is formed by default and a second physical path is formed to be diverse from the first physical path.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein a central controller instructs the service provider edge routers to form diverse paths.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein each service provider edge router is preconfigured to form diverse paths for any two tunnels terminated at both ends by the same service provider edge routers.
15. The method of claim 11 , wherein each service provider edge router defines loopback addresses for each VPN and creates a tunnel between respective loopback addresses of pairs of service provider edge routers.
16. The method of claim 15 , wherein each service provider edge router defines a virtual router for each VPN, and binds each virtual router with a respective loopback address.
17. The method of claim 11 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for the transmission of traffic based on a response to the injected probe packets.
18. The method of claim 11 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for transmission of traffic based on injected packets from the other CPEs.
19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for transmission of traffic based on timestamps of the probe packets received from the other CPEs.
20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the CPEs select a VPN for transmission of traffic based on timestamps of the probe packets received from the other CPEs.