Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO): An Overview
Wide Area Networks (WANs) play a crucial role in business operations, enabling seamless communication and the efficient sharing of information. However, data transfer between locations can sometimes encounter obstacles, leading to service interruptions. Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) helps minimize these disruptions, ensuring that your most critical applications remain operational.
Alongside technologies like DMPO, effective network management is essential to keep your business connected and running smoothly. After conducting a network assessment, you can identify opportunities to increase bandwidth, implement robust failover solutions for better resiliency, and design reliable WiFi systems tailored to your environment. Educating your team about networking and security best practices is also a key step in maintaining a secure, efficient network. Depending on your business needs and devices, a range of practical network services can be set up and customized, ensuring your team knows how to use them to full advantage.
Understanding Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO)
Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) enables businesses to prioritize critical network traffic, optimize bandwidth, and improve overall efficiency. By ensuring that essential applications run without interruption, DMPO helps minimize operational downtime. While the concept may seem complex for those unfamiliar with Wide Area Networks (WANs), we can make it easier to understand by starting with the basics.
What is a WAN?
A Wide Area Network (WAN) is a large network that spans multiple locations, connecting devices across cities, countries, or even continents. The most well-known WAN in the world is the internet. WANs allow users to communicate and share information by transmitting data packets between devices, regardless of their physical location.
These networks are built and maintained by data centers operated by service providers, who lease network access to businesses and individuals. Access to a WAN is typically provided through various links or connections, such as Wi-Fi, virtual private networks (VPNs), cellular networks, or dedicated lines. These links act as gateways, allowing users to connect to the larger network and exchange data seamlessly.
The Role of Dynamic Multipath Optimization
SD-WAN is effective at improving network performance through link monitoring and traffic redirection. However, its capabilities can be further enhanced to provide a higher level of reliability for your critical applications.
When connecting to a WAN, four key factors determine whether a link is suitable for data transfer:
- Latency: The delay before data transfer begins after an instruction. For example, the time it takes for a video game character to jump after you press the button.
- Throughput: The rate at which data is processed through a system.
- Packet Loss: Occurs when one or more data packets fail to reach their destination while traveling across the network.
- Jitter: The variation in the arrival time of data packets, often caused by network congestion or changes in routing. Excessive jitter can lead to latency and packet loss.
These factors can hinder bandwidth and prevent applications from performing optimally. To measure them, data packets are timestamped and sequenced as they travel through the network. By analyzing how long it takes for a packet to move from point A to point B, we can accurately assess bandwidth performance.
With real-time insight into how each link is performing, Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) can intelligently route traffic, ensuring your applications run smoothly and efficiently.
Setting Up Prioritization Rules
Think about your business and the online activities it relies on most. For this example, let’s consider video conferencing—something you absolutely cannot afford to fail.
Now imagine the different links your network uses to access a WAN. One link may be working fine initially, but what happens if it suddenly goes offline? An SD-WAN can reroute your video conferencing data packets to another link with better bandwidth. However, there may be times when multiple links are affected by latency, jitter, or packet loss.
This is where Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) comes in. Instead of constantly rerouting traffic, DMPO lets you create a prioritization list. Since video conferencing is our top priority in this example, DMPO is configured to maximize the performance of this application. It gives the SD-WAN a set of rules to follow, reserving a high-quality link specifically for video conferencing. When the SD-WAN detects video conferencing data packets, it ensures that only those packets are sent over the optimal link.
The result? High-priority applications like video conferencing continue to run smoothly, even if other parts of your network are experiencing performance issues.
