How to create or modify a WAN circuit

Adding a WAN circuit to a site in the Bigleaf Web Dashboard is simple. But it’s important to input the correct circuit details as it impacts how much traffic is routed to a circuit and is reflected in the Capacity graph of the Performance tab.

To add or modify a WAN circuit

1. Log in to the Bigleaf Web Dashboard with an Admin account.
2. Select the Configuration tab for the site you want to add or change a WAN circuit, and then select Edit.
3. Scroll down to the Circuits settings.
4. For new circuits, select New Circuit and enter the information for your circuit.
   For existing circuits, change the information as needed. To delete a circuit, select the Trash icon next to the circuit name.
5. When you're finished entering circuit information, select Save.
   
   

The WAN circuit information should have been given to you by your internet service provider (ISP). If you have any questions about any of the required information, contact your ISP. Or you can contact Bigleaf Support and we can assist you as well.

Download/Upload speed

Enter the download/upload speed for the circuit. Be as accurate as possible in the speed you enter, as it affects how much traffic we route to this circuit and is reflected in the Capacity graph of the Performance tab. If you're not sure what the expected speeds of the circuit are, you can enter 99/99 Mbps as a placeholder, and then contact Bigleaf Support and we can test your circuit speed and update the setting as needed.

Type

The circuit type has an impact on how Bigleaf routes traffic and creates alerts. The type of circuit has an expected range for latency, and also for loss and bandwidth.

For example, a fiber circuit likely has very low latency and we will typically favor it for time sensitive traffic like VoIP, whereas a cellular circuit can be slow. Additionally, a cellular circuit typically has an expected amount of loss and jitter, so we tune the alarms for the different circuit types -- a fiber circuit will produce an alarm with even a small amount of latency and jitter, whereas a slower type of circuit will be less sensitive and not produce alarms unnecessarily.

Protocol

There are three protocol types.

Static

The Static IP address is the address that our WAN is on. ISPs commonly refer to this as a usable IP.

The Subnet mask is the size of the network. Sometimes an ISP will give you this information in the form of a slash notation. If so, use the table below to translate the slash notation to a subnet mask.

/24      255.255.255.0

/25       255.255.255.128

/26       255.255.255.192

/27       255.255.255.224

/28       255.255.255.240

/29       255.255.255.248

/30       255.255.255.252

The Gateway IP is the address for the ISP device (e.g. modem).

DHCP

If you use Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), no additional input is necessary from you. The ISP will assign an IP address.

PPPOE

Enter the Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet (PPPoE) username and password that was provided to you by your ISP.

Advanced Options

These settings are optional.

Circuit Usage

This setting allows you to specify the type of network traffic allowed on the circuit. You can choose Load Balance where Bigleaf decides how traffic is routed among your circuit, or you can decide whether to allow traffic to access a circuit in only specific cases. For details about circuit Load Balancing, see Load Balancing options for WAN circuits.

Reset DSCP

Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) is a means of classifying network traffic on IP networks. DSCP uses 6 bits of the 8-bit differentiated services field in the IP header to classify data packets, allowing for 64 different values (0 to 63). Bigleaf sets our SDWAN tunnel packets with a DSCP value of 46 (the EF class).

In some rare circumstances, ISP equipment may choose to treat the traffic differently leading to degraded performance, such as restricting the throughput of the traffic. The Reset DSCP feature allows you to set the DSCP value to 0, which is the default value on the Internet to avoid these rare circumstances. Changing the value will cause a quick restart/reset of the WAN circuit.