Like Truffle, Truffle Lite is also a Software Defined WAN Orchestration and Broadband Bonding appliance. It is an award winning appliance in the belt of Mushroom Networks. It is a next generation software appliance with an inbuilt Packet granularity aggregation, Bandwidth management and Internet failover. The Truffle Lite is a 10 year research product from Mushroom Networks and most reliable Internet load balancer with inbuilt Internet failover.
For smaller businesses, Truffle Lite is a best load balancing appliance as it can combine multiple internet access lines and increases the speed and performance with a cost-effective and reliable way. By Truffle Lite, we can combine several ISPs to bring the high performance internet access line. Like Truffle, Truffle Lite is also an encrypted firewall, bandwidth manager, traffic monitoring, Internet failover and traffic shaping appliance that is packed with cutting edge adaptive Quality of Service features - all in one box.
Software Defined WAN (SD-WAN) design of Truffle Lite router is efficient and can manage any type of WAN connections like the Truffle. The base Truffle Lite model has 2 Ethernet based WAN and 2 Ethernet based LAN ports with the optional 1 or 2 more additional Ethernet based WAN ports for a total of up to 4 WAN ports. It also supports 2 USB based WAN ports for wireless 3G/4G data cards from any wireless carrier.
Truffle Lite installation can be done under 180 seconds without changing any existent WAN connections and you can enjoy a high speed and reliable Internet connection. The connection will be extremely fast and reliable.
Truffle Lite can use several T-1, DSL, cable modem, MPLS, metro-Ethernet or fiber services and combines their ISPs to give the user with increased bandwidth. Mushroom Networks used fundamental architecture of Truffle in Truffle lite, which means you will have all the Truffle features like dependability, scalability, remote manageability and field upgradable firmware features as standard.
Acceleration - With Truffle Lite Internet load balancer, all HTTP downlink sessions are aggregated for faster transfer via the Broadband Bonding technology. Even in cases of single HTTP session (an example of such a session is a single file download), all Internet access lines are simultaneously and intelligently combined together to provide a faster data transfer for that single session.
Downlink and Uplink Bonding in peered mode - Truffle Lite is a load balancing router with packet level Software Defined WAN aggregation. Truffle Lite bonds Internet access lines for all types of traffic (including encrypted traffic such as VPN) for aggregated downlink and uplink capacity when peered over the Internet with another Truffle located at the headquarter office or data center. For single office setups optional Broadband Bonding Service subscription enables downlink/uplink bonding.
Self Healing WAN for High 9s Network Reliability - In case of Internet access line failures, the Truffle keeps the ongoing sessions alive by making real-time per-packet routing decisions, even for the sessions in progress (in peered mode), without loss of data integrity. Additionally automatic failover protects against failures of one or more WAN link outages. Automated Domain Name Service (ADNS) optimization is used to maximize the utility of all active access lines, with automated email, syslog or SNMP alerts.
Application Armor with Session Keep Alive - When peered to a head-office Truffle Master unit, the Truffle Master unit monitors and intelligently reacts in realtime to mitigate any performance degradation caused by the WAN links at the branch offices. Managed parameters and network problems include packet loss, latency, jitter, cross-traffic, buffer management, MTU problems, black holes as well as others. In case of packet loss, spike in latency or any other degradation on any of the WAN links at the branch office, the VLL tunnel between Truffle and Truffle Master maintains the ongoing IP sessions without loss of performance by shielding the effects of dropped WAN link, lost packets, high latency on any of the links. 2G/3G/4G cellular cards can be added as standby WAN access links for additional reliability.
Elastic Static IP - A static IP in the cloud is provided as part of the optional Broadband Bonding Service and is mapped onto the Truffle. This means that static IP is available for services and inbound network access even during WAN outages, as long as at least one of the WAN links is up.
Cellular 3G/4G WAN connection - Truffle Lite supports 2 USB ports for cellular 3G/4G data cards. The cellular data card dongle can be configured as a fail-over-only or always-on WAN connection. In fail-over mode, in case of all the wired Internet access lines fail, the cellular data card will take over in less than 30 seconds providing seamless Internet failover.
Advanced Quality of Service (QoS) - Various adaptive quality of service features enables dynamic bandwidth reservation for your selected applications and traffic types, that adaptively reserves bandwidth only when that traffic type is detected. You can also limit inbound/outbound traffic to defined bit rates, bind certain traffic types on to specified WAN links, manipulate traffic based on TOS identifier, block certain traffic types and much more.
Traffic Shaping, Monitoring & Alerts - A history of your traffic usage based on type, prototcol, interface or layer 7 deep packet inspection identification are presented with multi-color graphs with a time scale from seconds, minutes, hours, days and months. Various realtime and nonrealtime traffic types can be filtered and shaped. SNMP or non-SNMP alerts provide in depth network visibility and intelligence.
DNS load balancing for inbound requests - Truffle Lite can easily be configured to provide Dynamic DNS load-balancing for inbound requests for internally hosted servers such as web-servers, ftp-servers, mail-servers etc.
Intelligent session-based load balancing - In peered mode, Truffle Lite will bond all types of traffic in downlink and uplink. Without peering, Truffle Lite will work as an internet load balancer for non-HTTP downlink sessions and all uplink sessions initiated from the Local Network. The application and cookie semantics will be preserved.
Pass-through installation – For installing Truffle Lite into your existing network, no changes are required at your firewall or network. Simply slide in the Truffle Lite between your existing network/firewall and your existing modem and add the additional WAN links as you need. All the installation and configuration can be done through the web-based management interface locally or remotely.
No coordination with ISP - With the Truffle Lite, no new equipment or software is necessary from your Internet Service Provider(s) and all ISPs are supported. A user-friendly web-based management interface is provided for quick and easy configuration and system monitoring, either locally or remotely over the Internet.
Built-in Firewall & Router – Truffle can be configured either in pass-through to function inline with the existing legacy firewalls/routers or, if preferred, can be installed as the primary firewall/router.
1. Let's say I have 4 DSL lines with 6Mbps downlink speed each, after I install Internet load balancer, Truffle Lite, how fast will I be able to download files?
Truffle Lite will aggregate all the 4 DSL lines that are connected to the WAN ports and file downloads will be around 4 x 6 = 24 Mbps. Truffle Lite can provide aggregate throughputs of up to 65Mbps.
2. How many LAN interfaces does the Truffle Lite support?
The base Truffle Lite model has 2 Ethernet based and 2 usb based (for wireless data cards) WAN ports. Optionally, you can add 1 or 2 more Ethernet based WAN ports to the Truffle Lite to have up to 4 Ethernet based WAN and 2 usb based WAN ports. Truffle Lite has a built-in 2 port switch that will connect to your local network.
3. What types of addresses does Truffle Lite support?
Truffle Lite supports DHCP, PPPoE and static IPv4 addresses assigned from your ISP. Truffle Lite can be configured appropriately through the web-based management interface. In the case of a static address, the LAN port of the Truffle Lite can be connected to a switch, and devices connected to the switch can be publicly addressed from the Internet through their statically assigned IP addresses. By default, however, the Truffle Lite uses DHCP to obtain a dynamic IP address on each Internet access line.
4. Does the Truffle Lite support port forwarding?
Yes; port forwarding on Truffle Lite is configurable through the web-based management interface.
5. Is the Truffle Lite designed to be compatible with my existing LAN equipment such as routers, switches and firewalls?
Yes. Any LAN interface on the Truffle Lite simply replaces the Ethernet port on a DSL modem or cable modem in an existing LAN configuration with only one Internet access line.
6. Do I need to order anything special from my ISP to use the Truffle Lite Internet load balancer?
No. The Truffle Lite is a stand-alone product that does not require any special software, hardware, or configuration from the ISP. All that is required is the acquisition of a standard broadband Internet access service, such as provided by DSL or a cable-modem.
7. Does the Truffle Lite offer DHCP service on the LAN interface?
Yes. The DHCP server is enabled by default, but may be disabled, or configured to use a certain range which will not conflict with statically configured devices on your LAN.
8. Will I need to reconfigure my existing network to install the Truffle Lite?
No. The Truffle Lite supports a "pass-through" installation, for which no changes are required to the existing office data network. No changes to firewall settings or IP address re-assignment is required with the pass-through mode. The pass-through mode was designed to accommodate existing local office networks which formerly had a single WAN connection to the Internet. In the pass-through mode, the Truffle Lite is installed in-line between the legacy WAN modem and the legacy firewall/gateway router. The Truffle Lite is configured in this case by entering the IP address of the legacy WAN modem and the IP address of the legacy firewall/gateway router through the web-based BBNA Management Interface. Additional WAN modems can be plugged in to the Truffle Lite for enhanced performance and reliability on an as-needed basis, and will automatically be available to the legacy data network in the office.
9. Besides the Broadband Bonding®, does Truffle Lite also provide inbound DNS load-balancing?
Yes.
10. Do I need the "Broadband Bonding Service" subscription with my Truffle Lite device?
No. All Truffle devices will provide http downlink bonding and intelligent load-balancing for uplink and non-http traffic without requiring the monthly Broadband Bonding Service. Broadband Bonding Service will however provide additional bonding capability enabling bonding for all protocols in uplink and downlink.
11. How many users does Truffle Lite support?
Truffle Lite is recommended for home offices and small office with up to 25 users. For larger office applications, Truffle is recommended.
12. Does Truffle Lite have Internet failover?
Yes, Truffle Lite has various levels of Internet failover. As an example if during a file download, if any one of the links fail, this outage will be shielded from the application since Truffle Lite will failover internet connection automatically. You can also utilize 3G / 4G wireless cards as an Internet failover.
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Truffle Lite - Broadband Bonding with Software Defined WAN |  |
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Please contact Mushroom Networks, Australia for the Truffle Lite User's Manual and other documentation.