What Is Link Aggregation?
Link aggregation (combining several network connections so they act as one) has traditionally meant enterprise switches and routers costing thousands, which is why most businesses that would benefit never deploy it.
Speedify is internet aggregation software that does the same job on hardware you already own, combining the internet connections a site or a laptop already has into one faster, more resilient connection. The gains need two or more connections; on a single connection Speedify works as an encrypted VPN and can be a little slower.
Keep reading to see what link aggregation is, whether it actually increases speed, and how a software implementation works.
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02
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Link Aggregation and Speed: When Combining Links Is Faster
Link aggregation can increase the potential maximum speed of a network connection. By combining multiple physical links into a single logical link, link aggregation can effectively increase the available bandwidth.
The actual gain depends on the number of links, the speed of each one and the traffic. Classic link aggregation on switches (LACP) balances whole flows across the links, so a single download still runs over one link. Packet-level aggregation, the kind Speedify uses, can speed up a single transfer as well.
Internet Aggregation vs. Link Aggregation: What Is Different
Link aggregation in the networking textbook sense (IEEE 802.3ad, LACP) joins Ethernet links between two devices inside one network. Internet aggregation, also called bandwidth or broadband aggregation, combines separate internet connections from different providers, for example a cable line, a DSL line and 4G/5G cellular, into one connection to the internet.
Internet aggregation needs a server on the far side, because each provider gives its connection a different public IP address. Speedify works this way: the Speedify client spreads traffic across every internet connection, and the Speedify server puts it back together, so websites and apps see one public IP address that stays the same when one connection drops.
How Speedify Does Link Aggregation
Speedify was initially built in 2014 as a link aggregation service. Speedify’s proprietary link aggregation implementation makes it possible to spread individual network packets among multiple Internet connections. By splitting all your web traffic at the packet-level, even large single socket transfers such as file uploads and downloads, and streaming movies can get a major speed boost from all available connections. Even on lossy wireless connections, packet loss will be minimized with the forward error correction-based algorithms.
The Speedify link aggregation software runs as a background service on your Windows, Linux or macOS computer, iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone and even OpenWrt routers. It’s compatible with any application that communicates data on the Internet, optimizing the performance of the connection, keeping it secure, and keeping it online through built-in failover when more than one connection is available.
How Speedify’s Software Link Aggregation Solution Works
If you’re wondering exactly how the software-only link aggregation implementation from Speedify works, here’s a step-by-step description:
- When running, the Speedify client software identifies all available Internet connections on your device in real time. You can add or eliminate them while running and Speedify will adjust its link aggregation algorithms. It “routes” them into a virtual network adapter.
- The Speedify client establishes a secure and encrypted connection to a server in the cloud, which acts as a middleman between you and the rest of the Internet.
- Speedify works in tandem with the servers in the cloud to intelligently divide your Internet traffic and deliver the combined speed of all available Internet connections.
- Speedify monitors the quality of your connection in the background. If one of your connections becomes unstable, the app’s built-in automatic failover mechanism reroutes all of your data so that you stay connected and don’t miss a beat. Once the lost connection is available again, Speedify starts to utilize it.
- Speedify also works to encrypt all of your data, as a mobile VPN solution. This keeps you safe from hackers and snoops.
Saving Money with Speedify: No Link Aggregation Hardware is Needed!
As Speedify is a software-only link aggregation solution that works with dedicated servers in the cloud, there’s no need for additional hardware (such as switches and other costly networking equipment) on the client side. You just have to install Speedify on your computer or mobile device and you’re all set.
Because Speedify is a software implementation, you can change your mix of combined Internet connections without having to get a dedicated hardware piece for each of them.
By not requiring link aggregation hardware, Speedify cuts the cost of the setup. Link aggregation switches and routers add a hardware cost at every site, and that hardware needs replacing as connection speeds rise.
Speedify Link Aggregation Performance: Combining Efficiency and Packet Loss Recovery
As Speedify was built with the core ability to combine 2 or more Internet connections, the focus has always been on:
- Increasing the efficiency of link aggregation (combining efficiency)
- Minimizing packet loss
In terms of efficiency, Speedify’s tests on all supported platforms show that, depending on the connections you aggregate, you can get as high as 95% efficiency. This number is higher when combining similar connections and may go lower if there is huge difference in latency between the connections.
Here’s an example of how Speedify calculates link aggregation efficiency: take an Ethernet link combined with a Wi-Fi network. The real transfer rate of the Ethernet network is 95 Mbps and the Wi-Fi does 45 Mbps. The theoretical link aggregation rate is 95 + 45 = 140 Mbps. The real rate is lower, but with Speedify you should get up to 95% of that, or 133 Mbps.
When it comes to connections with packet loss Speedify often speeds things up dramatically. Combining 2 connections with 5% packet loss, Speedify increases the bandwidth of the resulting connection by 300%, compared to running a single connection without Speedify.
Speedify = Secure Link Aggregation
Speedify is also a true mobile VPN app: it protects your traffic with 256-bit encryption (AES-256-GCM or ChaCha20-Poly1305 over DTLS 1.2), so hackers and snoops on the same network cannot read it. It is not antivirus software, so ransomware and other malware still need separate protection.
Other VPN solutions may slow down your Internet connection because of the way they were originally built, as a method to protect your data whatever the cost. Speedify started as a link aggregation service and added encryption later: its speed gains come from combining two or more internet connections, while the encryption protects the combined traffic.
For an affordable link aggregation solution that adapts to different combinations of internet connections, get started today with Speedify.
Link Aggregation Router Option: the Miri X510, Powered by Speedify
Speedify Business Solutions
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Speedify Embedded Solutions and Integrations
Add Speedify to your own app or hardware with the Speedify SDK. Your product then combines internet connections, fails over automatically when one drops, and encrypts the traffic, using the same technology as the Speedify app.