Bandwidth Aggregation with multiple 3G cards?

networking bandwidth 3g

7,761

Solution 1

You could do this. Network Manager can do one connection per device just fine. But even with network-manager connected to multiple things, outbound traffic will only chose one gateway. You need to bridge these gateways into a virtual tunnel and use that as the gateway.

The problem is all the machinery is there (iptables, ipchains, iproute2, etc) is somewhat lower-level than network manager. You can try and follow a guide showing example configuration to split traffic over multiple gateways but network-manager might end up getting in the way.

It might not. It might work out just fine. You won't know until you've poked it ;)

Solution 2

No, you can't aggregate multiple data cards out-of-the-box.

You need to buy a device that does link aggregation(802.3ad protocol).

7,761

jsruok

Working as an undergraduate trainer.

Updated on September 17, 2022

Comments

jsruok almost 2 years

I have multiple 3G data Cards as well as a wired connection to the Internet. I can connect each of them separately and access the internet. Is there any way i can aggregate the bandwidth of these cards to enjoy the combined speed? What i mean is simultaneously plugging in all the cards and getting the sum total of the bandwidth.
Oli over 13 years

I have two wireless and a wired adapter plugged in now. I can connect to three different networks just fine in network-manager.
karthick87 over 13 years

ohh is it..You should get 3 ips in that case isnt it ??
Oli over 13 years

Link aggregation is not the right subject for this problem. LA is binding two cables going both going from A to B in order to handle more bandwidth. This problem is binding A's separate links to B and C together.
Oli over 13 years

Yeah you would.
RobotHumans over 13 years

imho network-manager will only get in the way when the network interfaces bounce if he uses the load balancing method from your link. my understanding of nm breaking things is the route table mangling it does when links bounce. if it doesn't remove the multiroute component when an interface goes down, you'll just get proportional packet loss. one additional note: he might want to change the weight values to map to available bandwidth more correctly. if he switched to wicd postup and postdown scripts could be added to fix the multiroute.
RobotHumans over 13 years

+1 - this is the right solution. it just requires some tweaking
jsruok over 13 years

If my understanding of the subject is correct, i will get three separate IP's on the three interfaces ( provided i have 2 wireless and 1 wired ) but only one outbound gateway will be chosen and hence there will be no bandwidth aggregation. Am i right? so is there a consensus that i need to bridge that into a tunnel and use that as gateway.
crypdick over 4 years

powernet link is broken
X-Kent over 4 years

Link fixed to sourceforge. The original website is no longer maintained.