Load balancing

Goal

To configure additional WAN interfaces on the Digi 6350-SR/6355-SR in tandem with its primary WAN uplink such that all interfaces share the network load for Internet connectivity.

Note The cellular plug-in module is available as a WAN interface by default, though additional interfaces can be configured. For more information, see Dual WAN Ethernet ports.

Setup

This example assumes the LAN ports are operating under default settings, which provide DHCP connectivity to devices connected to the router's LAN ports.

For this set up, you need:

• Primary WAN Ethernet connection
• Secondary means of WAN access

Sample

The sample configuration below shows a router with two Internet connections:

• Cellular-based WAN connection through the router's modem
• Broadband-based WAN connection through the router's WAN Ethernet port.

Both WAN interfaces will be utilized equally, sharing 50% of the WAN network traffic.

Sample Configuration

Open the configuration profile for the router and make the following changes.

1. In the Modem -> Metric entry, ensure the value is set to the same number set in the Network -> Interfaces -> WAN -> IPv4 -> Metric setting.
2. In the Modem -> Weight entry, ensure the value is set to the same number set in the Network -> Interfaces -> WAN -> IPv4 -> Weight setting. This will set a 1:1 ratio between the two WAN interfaces, so each interface is handling 50% of the WAN network traffic.

Note The weight setting can be adjusted if you prefer to weigh the WAN traffic differently. For example, if you instead want 75% of the WAN traffic to go through the Ethernet WAN interface and 25% to go through the cellular modem's WAN interface (that is, a 1:4 ratio), set the weight of the Modem interface to 3 and the weight of the WAN -> IPv4 interface to 12 (or any 1:4 ratio of numbers, such as 1 and 4 or 2 and 8).