What is Multilink PPP?
If you are too far from the telephone company central office to qualify for DSL or if DSL is not available in your area, Multilink PPP is a viable option. Multilink PPP enables your computer to use two or more communications ports as if they were a single port of greater bandwidth. This means that if you use two modems to connect to the Internet, you can connect at double the speed of a single modem. Multilink PPP is now supported by Windows 95, 98 and NT 4.
Multilink PPP is a communications protocol that enables a personal computer (PC) to use two PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) communications ports as if they were a single port of greater bandwidth. For example, a subscriber can use two modems to connect to the Internet, thereby obtaining a connection that works at approximately twice the data transfer rate of a single modem used alone. Multilink PPP is also known as multiPPP, MLPPP or simply MP. The concept of MLPPP is not new. Originally, MLPPP was known as RFC 1717, published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Network Working Group in 1994 and intended for systems using the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) set of communications standards. Today, MLPPP can be used with other communications media such as telephone dial-up modems, cable modems, fiber optic systems or satellite Internet connections. Theoretically, MLPPP makes it possible to combine connections across different media, although such implementation can be
Multilink PPP is a communications strategy that makes use of the basic concept of point-to-point protocol. Essentially, the approach allows for the utilization of more than one PPP communication port in order to achieve a higher amount of bandwidth to work with. This type of communications protocol can often be employed with a personal computer and thus enhance the overall efficiency of many tasks. The utilization of Multilink PPP can be especially helpful in locations where dial up connections to the Internet are the only alternative. The end user will make use of two different modems to establish independent connections to the Internet. The connections are made to the same Internet Service Provider. Assuming that the ISP allows for this type of connectivity, the end user can effectively double the operating speed, as the two connections divide the requested data into packets that are simultaneously transmitted through each connection, then recombined at the user end. However, there a
PPP is a standards-based protocol based on a RFC (Request for Comments document); Multilink PPP is also a standard based on an RFC. Specifically, Multilink PPP is based on RFC2686 – The Multi-Class Extension to Multi-Link PPP and RFC 1990 – The PPP Multilink Protocol (MP). The point of Multilink PPP is to take multiple PPP links and “bond” them together to act as a single PPP link. These PPP links that are being bonded could be an ISDN BRI circuit, T1 circuits, or other types of PPP circuits. You should know that Multilink PPP must be configured on each side of the link. Thus, you cannot get multiple PPP T1 circuits from multiple carriers and expect to run Multilink PPP across them. All Multilink PPP circuits must come from the same carrier. Multilink PPP is not something new; it has been around for a long time. However, in the past it was primarily used to bond together multiple, slower dial-up circuits (like ISDN circuits). While I am sure there are plenty of companies out there stil
