[c-nsp] Problem in MultiLink

[Michael Markstaller]

> From: Sharath K [mailto:sharathk at pacific.net.in] 
> Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 8:40 AM
>
> Btw we are already  using IP Load-sharing Per-packet. But 
> heard that there are packet loss issues when using 
> load-sharing. Please give me your comments on this as well.
packet loss is no issue.. out-of sequence packets might be an issue and some other things like jitter, small packets but only relevant in some cases. There're a few detailed discussions about multilink andvantages and disadvatages in the list archive.
from the config snipplet you sent nothing really bad is visible but your problem might be either caused by a bug or the config on the other end of the link.

some overview from cisco is here:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/modules/ps2033/products_white_paper09186a0080091d4b.shtml


> Tantsura, Jeff 
> Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 1:39 PM
> To: Michael Markstaller; Sharath K; cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> Subject: RE: [c-nsp] Problem in MultiLink
> 
> Why? Argumentation? 

guess you refer to why CEF per-packet and not MLPPP, now, besides that others in the list did this argumentation very detailed in the past already:
- you don't have to deal with dozens of bugs in many images
- lower system load, a cost-saving point as you don't need to buy a 720xVXR as CPE for running 4 E1
- no outages on line-flaps regardless of which IOS used

Now there are cases where multilink should be preferred but then IMHO one should know *why* the connection will need multilink beforew doing it just because it sounds better.. Besides that you have good reasons like playing with voice or video, and have no very-low or non-equal bandwidth-links (not the case here) it works very fine for most applications, at least for me.
I had no single issue so far with CEF per-packet, even IPSec is fine.. (ok, one addition: I had no issues since CEF can be enabled at all without breaking IPsec, starting with some 12.2T-release)
But I had a bunch of issues with multilink, broken again and again, that's why I prefer the other one.

There are technologies that tend to work with less hassles and other which are more likely to cause troubles, I count MLPPP to the latter..

Michael