FireBrick

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FireBrick FB6000
FireBrick FB6000

Differences between L2TPNS and FireBrick FB6202

L2TPNS is an open source linux based LNS which was started by Adrian Kennard many years ago. And whilst Adrian is one of the main software designers behind the FireBrick, the FB6202 is not simply a bigger faster version of L2TPNS.

The FireBrick is all new software designed from scratch from the operating system and device drivers up.

This page highlights some of the operational differences if you are moving from L2TPNS to the FireBrick FB6202. We would like to thank Jon from Fido.net for his help in compiling this information.

Bigger/faster

The FB6202 is custom hardware designed to handle tens of thousands of sessions and route a gigabit of typical Internet traffic. In general you will be moving to an FB6202 to scale up your operations from a simpler L2TPNS operation and make use of some of the unique features of the FB6202.

The FB6202 can also work as part of a pool of devices handling multiple gigabits of traffic.

Reasons to upgrade to FB6202 from L2TPNS

  • The FB6202 includes live Constant Quality Monitoring graphs. These are based on per second LCP echos monitoring every line and provide a unique insight in to the characteristics of a line and line faults. Using the CQM graphs as part of a technical support operation can result in much more efficient and responsive handling of support queries as well as correlating and locating core network faults.
  • The FB6202 includes multiple line bonded downlink on per packet basis considering individual line speeds and not needing special MLPPP equipment at the receiving end.
  • The FB6202 supports comprehensive per session rate controls which favour VoIP traffic and other small packets automatically.
  • The FB6202 supports aggregate shapers for carrier links with fair sharing over sessions on congestion and sharing total shapers over multiple LNSs. This is in additional to shaping/throttling on a per session basis. You can also create arbitrary groups of sessions for additional aggregate shaping, aimed at managing wholesale L2TP hand-off with overall capacity management.
  • The FB6202 is very low power, under 30W, in a 1U rack mount dual power feed package.
  • The FB6202 does not include a hard disk, so the only moving parts are two cooling fans (where only one is necessary). This makes the FB6202 very reliable compared to conventional server hardware.
  • The FB6202 provides platform RADIUS for session steering to work with carriers such as BT and BE
  • The FB6202 supports live change of authority messages to allow clamping of sessions or disconnection making integration with your support systems easier. You can also disconnect from the CLI if you know the circuit ID.
  • The FB6202 supports IPv6 including IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels, DHCPv6 prefix delegation, and 2002::/16 prefix IPv6 source filtering.
  • A number of special cases are included specifically for dealing with BT links, including SIN502 session steering and even custom work-around for issues in BT network.
  • A number of additional tools are available from the FireBrick team, such as RADIUS accounting to mysql database with per hour accounting. The FB6202 supports hourly snapshot accounting within a few seconds of the exact hour.
  • Cold boot time for FB6202 is under 5 seconds (or as long as your connected switch port takes to be live), and reboot (e.g. for s/w upgrade) is under 1 second.
  • The boot loader system includes automatic fall back of software issues in the event of any major issues.
  • A comprehensive 2 day training course is available.

Some differences between FB6202 and L2TPNS that may catch you out.

  • Whilst the FB6202 does include a command line interface which is quite comprehensive, configuration is all handled via a web interface or XML config. The are differences in commands available.
  • L2TPNS handles MLPPP, a protocol designed for ISDN and not ideal for DSL. MLPPP also requires supporting multiline routers at the end user end. The FB6202 does not, and instead does per packet load balancing which requires no special equipment at the end user end.
  • The FB6202 uses BGP to announce connected devices and does not support OSPF. However there are plans to add this.
  • Dynamic IP pools for L2TP connections are not yet supported. Until now all customers have been quite happy to manage IP allocations using RADIUS, whether dynamic or static. However, this feature can be included if required - please do ask when ordering.
  • The list of sessions on the FB6202 does not include login details - however a linux C RADIUS accounting package is available on request, making tracking of active sessions over multiple LNSs simple, including login details.
  • The FB6202 does not support state mirroring to a backup box, but there are procedures for managing pools of FB6202s and maintenance and s/w upgrades.