How flexiWAN works

flexiWAN’s architecture is designed to offer flexible and scalable software-defined networking solutions. It’s built around three main components:

  1. flexiManage: A centralized platform that allows administrators to control and configure multiple edge devices from a single interface.

  2. flexiEdge: The network appliance that handles local traffic routing, security, and traffic steering.

  3. flexiAgent: The communication layer that ensures synchronization between flexiManage and flexiEdge, providing real-time monitoring and configuration updates.

This structure ensures adaptability for various networking needs, from small to enterprise-level deployments. The diagram below shows a flexiEdge device connected to flexiManage using a secure API. flexiManage provides management and configuration of flexiEdge devices and statistics colleciton. With flexiManage, network administrators can view and manage all flexiEdge devices.

High Level Block Diagram

flexiWAN High Level Block Diagram

flexiManage

flexiManage is the central management platform that gives you complete control over your flexiWAN deployment. With this cloud-based interface, you can manage multiple edge devices from one dashboard. It enables administrators to configure settings, monitor network health, apply policies, and automate updates across all connected devices. flexiManage ensures streamlined management of large, multi-site networks by providing real-time insights, notifications, and automated tasks.

flexiEdge

flexiEdge is the core component deployed at the network’s edge. It handles all traffic routing, security policies, and performance features, ensuring a smooth flow of data between multiple WAN interfaces. flexiEdge supports dynamic routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP), failover mechanisms, and traffic steering, making it an essential part of any multi-site network.

A flexiEdge device is composed of three key components:

  • Router Infrastructure: Based on FD.io’s Vector Packet Processor (VPP), which handles data traffic efficiently, optimizing network performance.

  • Routing Control Plane: Using Free Range Routing (FRR), flexiEdge manages network routing, ensuring traffic takes the best available paths.

  • flexiWAN Agent This connects flexiEdge to the flexiManage platform using secure APIs, enabling centralized management and real-time configuration updates.

flexiAgent

flexiAgent acts as the communication bridge between flexiManage and flexiEdge, ensuring that any changes made in flexiManage are applied to the edge devices in real time. It keeps both components synchronized, monitors device health, and reports network issues.

flexiWAN Agent connects with the flexiWAN management using a bi-directional secured web socket connection for configuration and statistics. flexiWAN Agent supports the follwoing capabilities:

  • Get simplified JSON API commands

  • Separate and translate APIs into internal commands provisioned in Linux and the Router

  • Key-value configuration storage

  • Orchestrate the execution sequence between various elements

  • Maintain configuration order

  • Restore the last system state and configuration after reboot

  • Transaction configuration processing and roll-back on failures

  • Monitor components and restart them on failure

  • Provide JSON structure of the entire configuration

  • Provide various CLI commands for troubleshooting