As the Internet has become so central to conducting business, virtually every organization now requires some form of redundant Internet access, or the ability to connect to multiple ISPs or WAN links and redirect traffic from congested Internet links to functioning links.

Multi-homing is the ability to connect a single LAN to multiple ISPs. Bandwidth aggregation is the ability to combine these WAN links into what is effectively one large connection, or bonded channel, or to maintain these links separately and allocate Internet traffic across them as needed. Both techniques require WAN link load balancing and automatic link failover.

Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) has long been used for multi-homing, but the cost and complexity of BGP makes it impractical for most small and mid-sized businesses. PowerLink and ShieldLink use NAT and authoritative DNS to overcome these restrictions, providing more manageable and less expensive outbound and inbound link load balancing and failover.

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