A key feature of the FB9000 is the ability to bond multiple links at a per packet level. This feature is only enabled on a fully loaded model of your FB9000.

Bonding works with routing and shapers together. (See Chapter 9 for details of shapers.)

The basic principle is that you have two or more routes that are identical (same target IP prefix) and have the same localpref, so that there is nothing to decide between them. As described above this normally means one of the routes is picked.

However, where the two (or more) routes are the same type of interface, and there are shapers applied to those routes, then a decisions is made on a per packet basis as to which interface to used. The shapers are used to decide which link is least far ahead. This means that traffic is sent down each link at the speed of that link.

To make this work to the best effect, set the tx speed of the shapers on the links to match the actual link speed. E.g. for broadband lines, set the speed to match the uplink from the FB9000.