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Bonding Examples

This is an example of aggregating multiple network interfaces into a single pipe. In particular, it is shown how to aggregate multiple virtual (EoIP) interfaces to get maximum throughput (MT) with emphasis on availability.

Network Diagram​

Two routers R1 and R2 are interconnected via wireless links. Wireless interfaces on both sides have assigned IP addresses.

Configuration​

Bonding could be used only on OSI layer 2 (Ethernet level) connections. Thus we need to create EoIP interfaces on each of the wireless links. This is done as follows:

On router R1:

/interface/eoip/add remote-address=10.0.1.1/24 tunnel-id=1 
/interface/eoip/add remote-address=10.2.2.1/24 tunnel-id=2

and on router R2:

/interface/eoip/add remote-address=10.0.1.2/24 tunnel-id=1 
/interface/eoip/add remote-address=10.2.2.2/24 tunnel-id=2

The second step is to add a bonding interface and specify EoIP interfaces as slaves:

R1:

/interface/bonding/add slaves=eoip-tunnel1,eoip-tunnel2 mode=balance-rr

R2:

/interface/bonding/add slaves=eoip-tunnel1,eoip-tunnel2 mode=balance-rr

The last step is to add IP addresses to the bonding interfaces:

R1:

/ip/address/add address 192.168.0.1/24 interface=bonding1

R2:

/ip/address/add address 192.168.0.2/24 interface=bonding1

Test the configuration​

Now two routers are able to reach each other using addresses from the 192.168.0.0/24 network. To verify bonding interface functionality, do the following:

R1:

/interface/monitor-traffic eoip-tunnel1,eoip-tunnel2

R2:

/tool/bandwidth-test 192.168.0.1 direction=transmit

You should see that traffic is distributed equally across both EoIP interfaces:

/int monitor-traffic eoip-tunnel1,eoip-tunnel2              
    received-packets-per-second: 685      685                                  
       received-bits-per-second: 8.0Mbps  8.0Mbps                              
        sent-packets-per-second: 21       20                                   
           sent-bits-per-second: 11.9kbps 11.0kbps                             
    received-packets-per-second: 898      899                                  
       received-bits-per-second: 10.6Mbps 10.6Mbps                             
        sent-packets-per-second: 20       21                                   
           sent-bits-per-second: 11.0kbps 11.9kbps                             
    received-packets-per-second: 975      975                                  
       received-bits-per-second: 11.5Mbps 11.5Mbps                             
        sent-packets-per-second: 22       22                                   
           sent-bits-per-second: 12.4kbps 12.3kbps                             
    received-packets-per-second: 980      980                                  
       received-bits-per-second: 11.6Mbps 11.6Mbps                             
        sent-packets-per-second: 21       21                                   
           sent-bits-per-second: 11.9kbps 11.8kbps                             
    received-packets-per-second: 977      977                                  
       received-bits-per-second: 11.6Mbps 11.5Mbps                             
        sent-packets-per-second: 21       21                                   
           sent-bits-per-second: 11.9kbps 11.8kbps                             
-- [Q quit|D dump|C-z pause]

It is easy to notice that with the configuration above as soon as any individual link fails, the bonding interface throughput collapses. That's because no link monitoring is performed; consequently, the bonding driver is unaware of problems with the underlying links. Enabling link monitoring is a must in most bonding configurations. To enable ARP link monitoring, do the following:

R1​

/interface/bonding/set bonding1 link-monitoring=arp arp-ip-targets=192.168.0.2

R2​

/interface/bonding/set bonding1 link-monitoring=arp arp-ip-targets=192.168.0.1