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OpenMPTCProuter anyone?

Its the PPPoE connection to the FTTC Openreach modem that is the issue. The PPPoE connection keeps dropping so I'm not able to properly test the bonding functionality. I think I'll need to dig out my old Plusnet router and connect that to the phone line and OMR so I can just use a DHCP connection like the 5G router uses.
 
Looking forward to the day when something like this (OpenMPTCPRouter) will become a matter of a few clicks and everything is set up for you, especially for us not too savvy who find it hard to get this done manually ourselves ;)
 
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can't believe i never spotted this thread before. well things have moved on a lot since I used MPTCP back in 2017, so I probably can't add much value.

But in summary I was working a on project to bond multiple connections together for vessels (superyachts etc...). 550ms Geo Satellite (only option at sea), 4G global SIM, or WiFi at Shore. I settled on MPTCP because the separate subflows allows the bonding to work seamlessly as the availability, bandwidth and latency changed on these connections over time and no manual intervention to switch links on/off. Also packet loss on one connections would not throttle the other connections.

I've since left that organisation and I believe they have worked on it and branded it much further now to include Starlink at sea also.

The way I was doing it was with OpenVPN tunnel and redsocks proxy to steer the connections through the tunnel to an AWS hosted "multiplexer" for internet breakout. This was needed at the time because most web servers didn't have MPTCP in the mainstream kernel. It was a complete DIY solution with a mini python web front end and Grafana dashboard to manage it.

Downside was AWS costs and increased latency steering traffic to AWS before local breakout to the internet, although this could be mitigated by picking the closest AWS node based on the vessels location.
 
can't believe i never spotted this thread before. well things have moved on a lot since I used MPTCP back in 2017, so I probably can't add much value.

But in summary I was working a on project to bond multiple connections together for vessels (superyachts etc...). 550ms Geo Satellite (only option at sea), 4G global SIM, or WiFi at Shore. I settled on MPTCP because the separate subflows allows the bonding to work seamlessly as the availability, bandwidth and latency changed on these connections over time and no manual intervention to switch links on/off. Also packet loss on one connections would not throttle the other connections.

I've since left that organisation and I believe they have worked on it and branded it much further now to include Starlink at sea also.

The way I was doing it was with OpenVPN tunnel and redsocks proxy to steer the connections through the tunnel to an AWS hosted "multiplexer" for internet breakout. This was needed at the time because most web servers didn't have MPTCP in the mainstream kernel. It was a complete DIY solution with a mini python web front end and Grafana dashboard to manage it.

Downside was AWS costs and increased latency steering traffic to AWS before local breakout to the internet, although this could be mitigated by picking the closest AWS node based on the vessels location.

oh I forgot the other issue I had was non-TCP traffic. had to use some source-routing magic for ICMP, UDP etc... (Adding/removing ip table rules per link up/down).
 
oh I forgot the other issue I had was non-TCP traffic. had to use some source-routing magic for ICMP, UDP etc... (Adding/removing ip table rules per link up/down).
Wonder if you couldn't just bond a few openvpn taps locally and remote (don't even know if it's possible).
 
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There are effective turn-key solutions for this. Peplink being the prime example.

In a proper "enterprise" environment, that's probably the best bet. For home...sky's the limit.
 
There are effective turn-key solutions for this. Peplink being the prime example.

In a proper "enterprise" environment, that's probably the best bet. For home...sky's the limit.
this is vpn bonding isn't it ? peplink i mean. i wonder what trains and cruise ships etc use.
 
There is a VPN component that can be leveraged, but still aggregates multiple connections into one and has similar load balancing/sharing options. You don’t need to add the VPN portion strictly speaking. But when you use somewhat disparate technologies (read: significant enough difference in latencies; cellular vs land based) it’s effectively a single link device with failover. It’s been a while since I’ve played with them. I used to work at a wireless MVNO and this was their bread and butter.

I know some ferries use it. Trains seem to use Icomera more than Peplink from what I’ve seen. And I’ve designed some pretty robust wireless topologies leveraging Peplink. It’s not terrible kit, but not exactly inexpensive either.
 
Wonder if you couldn't just bond a few openvpn taps locally and remote (don't even know if it's possible).

Probably could. But what we found is the vast majority of traffic that needed bandwidth aggregation and was TCP so we we just sent other protocols on any available link, preferably lower latency, that way we could stick with MPTCP which is far superior than MLVPN and other off the shelf options we tried.
 
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I've had another go with OpenMPTCProuter yesterday/today. Rather than complicating things with VMs and VLANS in my hypervisor, I bought a cheap Dell mini PC to install the router software on. The set up was mostly fine, but I'm having so many issues, namely:

1. I'm not getting full agregation. I get 300-400 megabit down on the 5G and 45 megabit down on the FTTC, and roughly 10-12 megabit upload on both sources. When combined I get 150 megabit down and 20 megabit up (the up is fine, its the down that doesn't look right).

2. The latency is so bad. Websites and services that would open in a snap in the Unifi failover setup take ages with this new setup.

3. Connection drops. I think the VPS runs out of memory. Adding a swap file doesn't seem to have made a difference. Speed test sites get half way through and timeout.

Is it something I'm doing wrong, or is my hardware / internet sources at fault?

I've put things back as they were for now. With a family all needing the internet, I can't leave 'tinker mode' in place when they need games / homework / streaming of an evening :(
 
Who are you using for the VPS side of things? Is your master connection your FTTC? do you have the tcp low latency option enabled?
 
If money is no object you could take a look at Peplinks Speedfusion solution. It works well but the kit is expensive. We use it for events networks mainly for resiliance on streamed events.

https://www.peplink.com/technology/speedfusion-bonding-technology/

You can pick up suitable Peplink routers on ebay for a few £100 and set up a fusionhub with a free licence (for a single user) on Vultr or similar for less than £10 a month.

One thing to note is that if you are trying to bond non similar connections you will never get very good results. One connection with 2ms latency wont bond well with another with 20ms latency as everything arrives and the far end of the bond at different times slowing everything down.

I have an install currently sitting on 2 fibre connections to different ISP's that bonds really well. Not really needed though as one connection is 10Gbps and the other 1Gbps. Perfect for a live stream though if one connection drops the stream just continues with no disruption.
 
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