AWS Direct Connect -Awsbloginfo

AWS Direct Connect permits to create a private network connection from our network to AWS location. It uses 802.1q VLANs, which can be partitioned into multiple virtual interfaces to access public resources using the same connection. This results in reduced network cost and increased bandwidth. Virtual interfaces can be reconfigured at any time as per the requirement.

Requirements to Use AWS Direct Connect

Our network must meet one of the following conditions to use AWS Direct Connect −

• Our network should be in the AWS Direct Connect location. Visit this link to know about the available AWS Direct Connect locations https://aws.amazon.com/directconnect/.

• We should be working with an AWS Direct Connect partner who is a member of the AWS Partner Network (APN). Visit this link to know the list of AWS Direct Connect partners − https://aws.amazon.com/directconnect/

• Our service provider must be portable to connect to AWS Direct Connect.

Additionally, our network must meet the following necessary conditions −

• Connections to AWS Direct Connect requires single mode fiber, 1000BASE-LX (1310nm) for 1 gigabit Ethernet, or 10GBASE-LR (1310nm) for 10 gigabit Ethernet. Auto Negotiation for the port must be disabled. Support for 802.1Q VLANs across these connections should be available.

• Network must support Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and BGP MD5 authentication. Optionally, we may configure Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD).

• AWS Direct Connect is a cloud service solution that makes it easy to establish a dedicated network solution from your premises to AWS.
• Using AWS Direct Connect, you can establish private connectivity between AWS and your datacenter, office, or colocation environment, which can reduce your network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than Internet-based connections.
• Direct Connect is a direct connection which is available on a dedicated line.

Why Direct Connect is used?

Direct Connect is used because of the following reasons:

• It directly connects your data center to AWS.
• It is useful for high throughput workloads, i.e., when the network traffic is very high.
• It provides you a stable and reliable secure connection.

Architecture of Direct Connect

• AWS Region

In Direct Connect Architecture, we have AWS region, and inside the AWS Region, we have AWS Public services such as S3 and also we have VPC which could be a private VPC.

• Direct Connect (DX) Location

It consists of Direct Connect Location which is spread across the world. Inside Direct Connect Location, we have two cages, i.e., AWS cage and customer/partner cage. AWS cage consists of Direct Connect routers, and Customer/Partner cage consists of Cust/Part Routers.

You have a dedicated link from your data center which is labeled as Last Mile Pseudowire/ LAN Extension. AWS have their own backbone network as well. Through AWS Backbone Network, they are connecting to DX Router over DX connection. X-Connect is connecting DX Routers and Cust/Part Routers. It also consists of a dedicated line connecting the Cust/Part Router to the Customer WAN/MAN Router. What happens is when we run a connection, Cust/Part Router connects to the DX Router through X-Connect. DX-Router connects to the AWS public services through DX Connection. Similarly, a customer data center can connect to the VPC services.

Features of Direct Connect

• Reduces Your Bandwidth Costs
  If you have heavy workloads that you want to run in AWS, then AWS reduces the network costs in two ways:
  • Direct Connect can transfer the data into and out of AWS directly.
  • Direct Connect uses a dedicated link which has a lower data transfer rate than internet data transfer rate.
• Consistent Network Performance
  Network latency can vary over the internet as the internet is constantly changing how data is routed from point A to point B. Direct Connect allows you to use the choose the data that uses the dedicated connection which provides consistent network performance.
• Compatible with all AWS services
  Direct Connect is a network service that works with all AWS services which are accessible over the internet such as Amazon Storage Service, Elastic Compute Cloud, and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud.
• Private connectivity to your Amazon VPC
  Direct Connect can be used to establish a private virtual interface from your on-premises directly to AWS VPC. It can provide you private, high bandwidth network connection between your network and VPC. With the help of multiple virtual interfaces, you can establish private connectivity to multiple VPCs.
• Elastic
  Amazon Direct Connect can easily scale the connections to meet your needs. Direct Connect can provide up to 10 Gbps connections. DIRECT Connect can provide multiple connections to meet your needs. Direct Connect can be used instead of establishing VPN Connections as Direct Connect avoids the need for VPN hardware.
• Simple
  You can easily sign up to the Amazon Direct Connect by using the AWS Management Console. AWS Management Console provides a simple view to manage all the connections and virtual interfaces efficiently. You can even download the router template after configuring one or more virtual interfaces.

How to Configure AWS Direct Connect?

Following are the steps to configure AWS Direct Connect −

Step 1 − Open the AWS Direct Connect console using this link − https://console.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/

step 2 − Select AWS Direct Connect region from the navigation bar.

step 3 − Welcome page of AWS Direct Connect opens. Select Get Started with Direct Connect.

step 4 − Create a Connection dialog box opens up. Fill the required details and click the Create button.

AWS will send an confirmation email within 72 hours to the authorized user.

Step 5 − Create a Virtual Interface using the following steps.

• Open AWS console page again.

• Select Connection in the navigation bar, then select Create Virtual Interface. Fill the required details and click the Continue button.

• Select Download Router Configuration, then click the Download button.

• Verify the Virtual Interface (optional). To verify the AWS Direct Connect connections use the following procedures.

  To verify virtual interface connection to the AWS cloud − Run traceroute and verify that the AWS Direct Connect identifier is in the network trace.

  To verify virtual interface connection to Amazon VPC − Use any pingable AMI and launch Amazon EC2 instance into the VPC that is attached to the virtual private gateway.

  When an instance is running, get its private IP address and ping the IP address to get a response.

Features of Direct Connect

• Reduces bandwidth costs − The cost gets reduced in both ways, i.e. it transfers the data to and from AWS directly. The data transferred over your dedicated connection is charged at reduced AWS Direct Connect data transfer rate rather than Internet data transfer rates.

• Compatible with all AWS services − AWS Direct Connect is a network service, supports all the AWS services that are accessible over the Internet, like Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, Amazon VPC, etc.

• Private connectivity to Amazon VPC − AWS Direct Connect can be used to establish a private virtual interface from our home-network to Amazon VPC directly with high bandwidth.

• Elastic − AWS Direct Connect provides 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps connections, having provision to make multiple connections as per requirement.

• Easy and simple − Easy to sign up on AWS Direct Connect using the AWS Management Console. Using this console, all the connections and virtual interfaces can be managed.