Firmware 7.1 and overflow algorithm

Just flashed firmware 7.1 on my Balance 20 and checked my outbound policy. My defualt algorithm is overflow, with highest priority being mobile internet (which has much better bandwith than WAN 1&2). However, when I look at the “Overflow Order” in the edit default custom rule box, the mobile internet has disappeared - only the 2 fixed line WANs are visible.

On the outbound policy main screen, the text shown is “Overflow WAN: Mobile internet…” but as I write this I am cnnected via a fixed-line WAN, so I don’t know whetehr it’s working. If I create a new custom rule and choose Overflow, mobile internet is not available in the overflow order.

Is this algorithm broken? Does anyone else see this issue?

Overflow is a dynamic algorithm. The failover is depending on the bandwidth defined on the WAN interface. Cellular or Mobile Internet didn’t don’t have the consistent bandwidth. Hence, Overflow is available for wired WAN only.

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Thanks for the information. That’s a shame. My mobile connection is far more reliable than my landlines and I want to prioritise it, but it seems Peplink knows what’s best for me. :frowning:

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This feels like a mistake to me also - although I understand the logic.

We do many many fixed installs combining cellular and fixed lines (like DSL) where both the cellular and DSL can be highly variable (because they are both contended/congested services) however cellular typically has more bandwidth more of the time.

Perhaps the overflow algorithm should actually be priority based with a latency ceiling measurement rather than based on hardcoded bandwidth availability? ie use cellular first and when its latency rises over a set level (because it has started to buffer) start using the DSL.

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Hard to compare against latency vs available bandwidth but again i will let Engineering team to consider about the suggestion.

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I agree with the OP.

I have a Balance One, and feed it three internet connections.

  1. Very slow DSL connection (2.5 Mbps)
  2. Cell connection in a Peplink Mini BR1
  3. Cell connection fed by a USB modem.

I set reasonable speed values for the cell connections (10 Mbps for #2, even though it routinely clocks 25 Mbps), which resulted in the Balance One spreading the load fairly well, but keeping the DSL connection fully loaded.

With the new 7.1 firmware, my USB Cell modem is out of the picture, which makes the overflow algorithm less useful to me.

Please roll back overflow to the way it used to be. It was much better.

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Can we please request that the mobile internet be added to the selection for overflow? I don’t think the assumption should be made by the product software team to assume cell connection is more limited than wired. Do you expose your product backlog (jira or github)? Is there open source firmware/software for this?

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I would like it too. My mobile bandwidth and reliability is far betther than wired. Is this not a matter of a fairly straightforward firmware change?

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Are folks also missing the ‘lowest latency’ and ‘least used’ option? I am comparing against a Balance 20 and 310 and see all of the options but for some reason my Pepwave MK2 is missing those two options in the drop-down. The tool tip does say " When Auto is chosen, lowest latency algorithm will be applied." but why is that missing as a drop down option? I do see: Weighted, Balance, Persistence, Enforced, Priority, Overflow (albeit it is greyed out for the cellular as others have said in this thread), and Fastest response time.

Did anyone put a feature request in to add mobile connection to the least used and overflow algorithms?

Not sure, but it likely wouldn’t work as you’d hope since both algorithms use static config bandwidth values, where as cellular can be variable.

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Thanks for the response. Fair point. I submitted a ticket to ask anyway. I have 3 connections to my peplink 20; a satlink, an LTE based router and a mobile internet connection. I’ve tried low latency, fastest and weighted with mild success at various times but no consistent “best” solution. Open to suggestions but I’ve recently found just connecting directly to the individual sources provides the best experience…which kind of defeats the purpose of having the peplink in the first place. I’ll post back on the results of my ticket once it is closed out.