Layer 2 Integration

At the heart of the Elfiq Link Balancer product line lies a unique product architecture design which meets the most demanding customers’ requirements while overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional Layer-4 approach to link balancing.

Elfiq’s Layer-2 approach enables the balancer to handle the traffic through MAC-address interceptions and not IP address session termination, procuring technical advantages which translate into the following benefits:

• Wire-speed transmissions of data packets
• Easy link addition and configuration
• Support for any type of IP link (public or private)
• Secure network operation: the unit is transparent to the Internet making it invisible to attacks
• Transparent installation and operation: does not require the reconfiguration of existing equipment, including routers and firewalls through the primary link
• Universal compatibility with all equipment (firewalls, routers, switches)
• No need for ISP involvement or cooperation for configuration and management.

Download the Elfiq Layer 2 White Paper

The traditional method of performing link balancing tasks requires a more limiting approach based on Layer-4 of the OSI model. Though product vendors are able to design products rapidly under this model and provide improvements over the BGP link management model, it raised a number of considerations where the benefits are diluted by the drawbacks:

• Layer-4 products act as a proxy; they terminate sessions to manage them causing degradation in performance.
• The device by nature is visible to Internet traffic, making it vulnerable to traditional attacks, causing maintenance overhead and a new security risk in the infrastructure which requires monitoring.
• A temporary reconfiguration of the network infrastructure is required to integrate and configure the device in most cases.
• Layer-4 devices do not enable the ability to let traffic pass through when a unit loses power, ensuring continuity like Elfiq’s LAN Failsafe feature.