WAN Design

[jeanpaul.cisco]

Hi

I am assigned to connect 6 branch offices to the HQ and 2 distributor office. P2P Wireless is the media of connection between HQ and branches + distributor.  In the Branches/distributor wil get 2900 series router to terminate the Wireless link,

6 branches are trusted sites with full control

2 Distributor office are untrusted sites - No control on infrastructure setup except WAN router 2900 series

Application, email and Internet are accessed from all Branches

Application, email are accessed from distributor office

What hardware I need in HQ to connect 6 branches and 2 distributor office

what measure to take to have secure connection between HQ and distributor office

best wishes

JP

[Marwan ALshawi]

Selecting a WAN router deepens mainly on the bandwidth
For secure communications you may use site to site VPN IPSec tunnels or DMVPN with IPSec protection

Hope this help

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[jeanpaul.cisco]

Mr Marwanshawi appreciate your response.

All branches P2P link are 5MB upload/download

P2P link with distributor are 2MB upload/download

How to terminate all WAN links on the router

what is the ideal specification of router required

best wishes

JP

[Marwan ALshawi]

Based on the bandwidth you need
Cisco 1900 series router could an option too
If you need to have some sort of secure VPN on some routers you have to consider a security license as well
About the connectivity I am not very sure how your topology looks like if you can share a diagram will be good

Hope this help
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[jeanpaul.cisco]

Mr Marwanshawi appreciate your reply.

our current design is simple and what bothers me is how to connect 6 branches and 2 distributor on wan router 1900.

Do i need 8 interfaces on router 1900 and what if new branches needs to be added.

can you explain on the connectivity please

[vmiller]

What types of services are available from your local carrier?

You could link your trusted sites to the HO via frame relay PVC's. This would occupy one interface on a wan router.

Another option may be MPLS, and let a carrier do most (but not all) the heavy lifting.

It would be possible to use the internet to connect to the 2 distribution sites using VPN.

I would consider putting some decent horsepower into the WAN router, or, using 2 seperate devices, one for the

trusted and one for the untrusted. it would make configuration, and policy management easier.

[Marwan ALshawi]

This depends on the type of the link/service you getting from your ISP
Generally speaking you should not get a physical link per remote site you may have one link connected physically to the HQ site and depending on the service you have the remote sites can connect to the hub site in hub and spoke topology
Read on cisco DMVPN. It could be a go option for your topology and this is a very scalable solution if you want to add more sites in the future
Also for the hub site you may need to have 2900 or 3900 instead of 1900 ISR series router with appropriate license based on the feature you will use

Hope this help
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[jeanpaul.cisco]

Mr Marwanshawi,Vmiller appreciate your reply.

Actually the Branches are in the same city and around 2Km to 5Km apart and our organization will lease the P2P devices hence no provider in this scenario.  The question is were to terminate the 6 branches physical links

This question might sound stupid but what is the major difference between 2900 and 3900 series router, reading some post i understand 'router throughput' is the key in selecting the device.  what other criteria will make me select 3900 over 2900 router

best wishes

JP

[Marwan ALshawi]

Hi there
If you are going to terminate each remote site physically to the HQ/hub site then you just need to terminate it directly to the hub router if you can purchase a fiber interface module or you can have a media converter SFP from fiber to Ethernet
At the hub you exchange routing with each of the branches for end to end ip communications
The 3900 is only a higher router cisco ISR. Series that support higher throughput/bandwidth can support more modules, and higher CPU and memory

HTH

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[jeanpaul.cisco]

Mr Marwanshawi appreciate your reply.

How do I terminate each P2P link on the HQ Router (Interface Type = Ethernet)

I understand by default the 3900 series got 3 Giga interface only, do I need to add additional card or look for different router model. what if i got more branches comming in?

[Marwan ALshawi]

you can use ethernet module with sfp convertors from fiber to copper for direct termination to the router
of you may use as switching between as media converter and to be the physical termination point if you expect a large expansion and you need many physical ports

hope this help
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[joaofarinha]

Well, looking at you diagram, why don't you just put a 24 port Layer 2 Switch (like a 2960) and connect each of the wireless links to one of the ethernet ports? You can then connect one of the uplink ports on the switch to one of the main site router's port...

You can then create a simple routing network, all on the same subnet...

Am I missing something?

[vmiller]

You haven't indicated how the 6 locations will physically connect to the HQ. Somewhere in there someone has to provide a link.

6 or 8 interfaces will force you into a much larger head end device.

[Marwan ALshawi]

as i mentioned above, the 3900 with a etherswitch module could be an option however considerations around fiber to copper is important such as using a converter sfp, assuming the WAN links won't be with a high bandwidth

if the bandwidth is getting higher and number of links increasing then you may need to consider an ASR 1000 with the appropriate number of modules/links supported

hope this help