Peplink Forward Error Correction (FEC)

Available from firmware version 8.0 for Peplink routers with a SpeedFusion WAN Smoothing license.

Introduction

When using multicast applications on lossy WAN connections the performance can suffer. To overcome these problems Peplink introduced WAN smoothing, but WAN smoothing has an overhead of at least 50%.
This is not always desirable when there isn’t enough bandwidth available. Peplink has therefore introduced Forward Error Correction in Firmware 8.0
FEC is a cousin of WAN smoothing but it consumes less data. It is useful for bandwidth sensitive applications such as mobile streaming.



When to use:

Forward Error Correction: Bandwidth sensitive 1-way communications like live TV and video streaming.
WAN Smoothing: Latency sensitive 2-way communications such as VoIP or Video Conferencing.

FEC definition
Forward error correction (FEC) is a digital signal processing technique used to enhance data reliability. It does this by introducing redundant data, called error correcting code, prior to data transmission or storage. FEC provides the receiver with the ability to correct errors without a reverse channel to request the retransmission of data. It is required that the peer router is using Firmware 8.0.0 and above.

Configuring your Peplink router
In the web admin interface go to
Network > Speedfusion on your Balance router or
Advanced > SpeedFusion on your MAX router.

Select a “New Profile” or open an existing PepVPN profile.
Select the option of choice on the Forward Error Correction drop-down list.
Save and Apply the changes

The options are:

Off    Default
Low    Expected Overhead 13.3%
High    Expected Overhead 26.7%



For a more in-depth look at FEC watch this video