Deploy Static IP Anywhere by Big Network

Deploy Static IP Anywhere by Big Network

Introduction

Static IP Anywhere (SIPA) by Big Network is the ideal solution for delivering Static IP addresses via multiple resilient ISP connections without the cost and complexity of BGP routing, expensive enterprise dedicated internet access, or work arounds like Dynamic DNS and port forwarding. This solution leverages multiple Big Network components to create fully meshed, secure, and transparent Layer 2 services over any Internet connection so that Static IP addresses can be delivered “over the top” in a carrier agnostic manner.

Reference Design Diagram and Key Components



Key Components

  1. SIPA Headend: The SIPA Headend provides IP routing, DHCP, and Cloud Network gateway services to the Customer Premise. The SIPA Headend provides access to blocks of Static IP addresses to be delivered “over the top” to the customer premise via Cloud Networks. Big Network recommends deployment of SIPA Headends in locations geographically proximate to your Customer Premises in scope. Big Network recommends deploying SIPA Headends on Bare Metal Cloud providers that offer IP routing and flat rate IP bandwidth packages. The SIPA Headend is typically deployed with Edge Virtual on Linux KVM or VMware, or an Edge Pro may be used.
  2. Multiple ISPs to the Customer Premise: To enable high levels of network availability, the Customer Premise must have multiple Internet connections. Any type of connection will work, including fiber, cable, DSL, wireless, mobile, or satellite. Static IP addresses on the WAN are not required. Carrier Grade NAT’ed connections are compatible with the solution.
  3. SIPA Customer Premise Equipment (CPE): The SIPA CPE provides access via multiple ISPs to the SIPA Headend. The SIPA CPE is typically the Big Network Edge Pro or Edge Lite with multiple WAN ports configured. The Edge’s LAN ports are configured to provide Static IP Addresses to downstream connected devices, just like a traditional ISP would. 

Concept of Operation

SIPA works by disintermediating Static IP addresses from the ISPs providing Internet Access to the customer premise in question. By unbundling Static IP addresses from their corresponding ISP, multiple ISPs can be used to provide resilient Internet connectivity while delivering Static IP addresses “over the top” via a hosted SIPA Headend at a Bare Metal Cloud Provider or Private Cloud of the customer’s choice.

Inbound traffic to the SIPA provided Static IP is routed to the Bare Metal Cloud Provider, to a bare metal server, and via Big Network Cloud Networks to the SIPA CPE. Conversely, for the SIPA CPE, it’s default route will carry traffic on top of the Cloud Network to the SIPA Headend where it will be egressed to the Internet.
Cloud Networks provide the fully meshed tunnels that traverse NAT and CGNAT to provide resilient connectivity for Static IPs being used. By forming multiple tunnels over multiple ISPs at the customer premise, a high level of redundancy and availability can be achieved.

SIPA Headend

Big Network suggests deploying your SIPA Headend on a Bare Metal Cloud Provider or Private Cloud of your choice. We make the following recommendations:
  1. Locate your SIPA headend in geographic proximity to your SIPA CPEs. This will reduce the latency introduced by the solution.
  2. If using Edge Virtual, select a Bare Metal Cloud or other hosting solution capable of providing a server with 4x CPU cores at 3GHz or greater, 8GB of RAM, and 64 GB of disk space.
  3. Select a Bare Metal Cloud or hosting provider that provides sufficient metered bandwidth packages or flat rate ports. Recall that all traffic to/from your Static IP addresses will traverse the SIPA Headend.
  4. Select a Bare Metal Cloud or hosting provider that can provide the needed amounts of IPv4 address space for your deployment needs, or allows you to bring your own IPv4 address blocks to announce via BGP routing.
Deploy the SIPA Headend on Edge Pro or Edge Virtual on KVM or VMware ESXi. Configuration guides for deploying each solution are listed below:
  1. Edge Pro On-Boarding Guide
  2. Edge Virtual on KVM Guide
  3. Edge Virtual on ESXi Guide

Customer Segmentation, Cloud Networks, and Network Functions

Big Network suggests that a distinct Cloud Network is used for each SIPA CPE. This provides per-customer segmentation of the network. 



The SIPA Headend provides aggregation of multiple SIPA CPEs to the upstream network. By using a Cloud Network per Customer Premise, aggregated traffic can be presented as a series of VLAN tags from Edge Pro or Edge Virtual. External to Edge Pro or Edge Virtual, the SIPA Headend provides a routing function, and may provide other ISP functions such as Broadband Network Access Gateway (BNG), firewall, secure web gateway, and authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) services.
If using Edge Pro at your SIPA Headend, connect upstream via a VLAN trunk to Edge Pro’s LAN ports. Map Cloud Networks onto VLAN tags for each customer, and provision VLAN based SVIs on your upstream router.
If using Edge Virtual at your SIPA Headend, ensure that your hypervisor is configured to support VLAN aware bridges between Edge Virtual and your virtual router. 
Big Network suggests provisioning IPv4 /30s between your virtual router along with DHCP functionality for ease of customer deployment.

SIPA CPE

Configuration of the SIPA CPE is straightforward. The SIPA CPE simply acts as a bridge between a specified Cloud Network and LAN interface at the on-premise Edge Pro or Edge Lite. This is a transparent bridge in the network.



Conclusion and Result

As a result of this implementation, Static IP addresses can be delivered "over the top" via any ISP and any mix of Internet connections. Multiple connections can be used to provide resiliency and high availability.

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