vBNG & Bison BNG PPPoE Setup Guide

Overview

This guide covers Virtual BNG (Broadband Network Gateway) and Bison BNG setup for PPPoE with Zal Ultra RADIUS integration. Virtual BNG solutions provide cost-effective, scalable alternatives to hardware BNG systems.

What is vBNG?

vBNG = Virtual Broadband Network Gateway
  ✅ Software-based BNG running on x86 servers
  ✅ Scalable and cost-effective alternative to hardware
  ✅ Supports PPPoE, IPoE, L2TP
  ✅ RADIUS AAA integration
  ✅ High performance with DPDK/VPP

Supported Platforms:

🔧 Accel-PPP - Popular open-source PPPoE server
🚀 DPDK-based vBNG - High-performance packet processing
📡 VPP (Vector Packet Processing) - Cisco FD.io project
🦬 Bison BNG - Open-source BNG solution
🐧 Linux PPPoE Server - Built-in Linux PPP daemon

Accel-PPP Setup
DPDK vBNG Setup
VPP BNG Setup
Bison BNG Setup
Performance Tuning
Monitoring & Troubleshooting

Accel-PPP Setup

What is Accel-PPP?

Accel-PPP = Accelerated PPP daemon
  ✅ High-performance PPPoE/L2TP/PPTP server
  ✅ RADIUS AAA support
  ✅ Built-in DHCP server
  ✅ Traffic shaping (tc, tbf)
  ✅ VLAN support
  ✅ IPv6 support
  ✅ Can handle 10,000+ sessions on commodity hardware

Step 1: Install Accel-PPP

bash

# Update system
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade -y

# Install dependencies
apt-get install -y build-essential cmake gcc linux-headers-$(uname -r)
apt-get install -y libpcre3-dev libssl-dev liblua5.1-0-dev
apt-get install -y git

# Clone Accel-PPP
cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/xebd/accel-ppp.git
cd accel-ppp

# Build and install
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
      -DKDIR=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r) \
      -DLUA=TRUE \
      -DSHAPER=TRUE \
      -DRADIUS=TRUE \
      -DNETSNMP=TRUE \
      ..
make
make install

# Load kernel modules
modprobe pppoe
modprobe ppp_mppe

# Enable on boot
echo "pppoe" >> /etc/modules
echo "ppp_mppe" >> /etc/modules

Step 2: Configure Accel-PPP

bash

# Create configuration file
cat > /etc/accel-ppp.conf << 'EOF'
[modules]
log_file
log_syslog
pppoe
auth_pap
auth_chap_md5
auth_mschap_v1
auth_mschap_v2
radius
ippool
shaper
net-snmp
connlimit
sigchld

[core]
log-error=/var/log/accel-ppp/core.log
thread-count=4

[common]
single-session=replace
sid-case=upper

[ppp]
verbose=1
min-mtu=1280
mtu=1492
mru=1492
accomp=deny
pcomp=deny
ccp=0
check-ip=0
single-session=replace
mppe=prefer
ipv4=require
ipv6=deny
ipv6-intf-id=0:0:0:1
ipv6-peer-intf-id=0:0:0:2
ipv6-accept-peer-intf-id=1
lcp-echo-interval=30
lcp-echo-failure=3
lcp-echo-timeout=0
unit-cache=1

[pppoe]
verbose=1
interface=eth1
ac-name=ISP-vBNG
service-name=ISP-PPPoE
called-sid=mac
tr101=0
pado-delay=0
ifname=pppoe%d
sid-case=upper
vlan-mon=eth1,100-200
vlan-timeout=60
vlan-name=%I.%N

[radius]
nas-identifier=vBNG-01
nas-ip-address=192.168.1.1
gw-ip-address=10.10.0.1
auth-server=192.168.1.100:1812,YourSecretKey123
acct-server=192.168.1.100:1813,YourSecretKey123
dae-server=192.168.1.100:3799,YourSecretKey123
verbose=1
timeout=3
max-try=3
acct-timeout=120
acct-delay-time=0
acct-interim-interval=300

[ip-pool]
gw-ip-address=10.10.0.1
10.10.1.2-254
10.10.2.2-254
10.10.3.2-254

[dns]
dns1=8.8.8.8
dns2=8.8.4.4

[shaper]
verbose=1
attr=Filter-Id
down-burst-factor=0.1
up-burst-factor=1.0
latency=50
mpu=0
r2q=10
quantum=1500
moderate-quantum=1
cburst=1534
ifb=ifb0

[cli]
telnet=127.0.0.1:2000
tcp=127.0.0.1:2001
password=admin

[snmp]
master=0
agent-name=accel-ppp

[connlimit]
limit=10/min
burst=3
timeout=60

[log]
log-file=/var/log/accel-ppp/accel-ppp.log
log-emerg=/var/log/accel-ppp/emerg.log
log-fail-file=/var/log/accel-ppp/auth-fail.log
log-debug=/var/log/accel-ppp/debug.log
copy=1
level=3
EOF

Step 3: Configure Network Interface

bash

# Configure subscriber interface (no IP)
cat > /etc/network/interfaces.d/eth1 << 'EOF'
auto eth1
iface eth1 inet manual
    up ip link set $IFACE up
    down ip link set $IFACE down
EOF

# Bring up interface
ip link set eth1 up

# Create IFB interface for shaping
modprobe ifb numifbs=1
ip link set ifb0 up

Step 4: Configure NAT

bash

# Enable IP forwarding
echo "net.ipv4.ip_forward=1" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p

# Configure iptables NAT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.10.0.0/16 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -A FORWARD -i pppoe+ -o eth0 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -i eth0 -o pppoe+ -m state --state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

# Save iptables rules
apt-get install -y iptables-persistent
netfilter-persistent save

Step 5: Start Accel-PPP

bash

# Create log directory
mkdir -p /var/log/accel-ppp

# Start service
systemctl start accel-ppp
systemctl enable accel-ppp

# Check status
systemctl status accel-ppp

# View logs
tail -f /var/log/accel-ppp/accel-ppp.log

Step 6: Verify Configuration

bash

# Connect to CLI
telnet 127.0.0.1 2000
# Password: admin

# Show sessions
show sessions

# Show statistics
show stat

# Show radius
show radius

# Exit
exit

DPDK vBNG Setup

What is DPDK?

DPDK = Data Plane Development Kit
  ✅ High-performance packet processing framework
  ✅ Bypasses kernel network stack
  ✅ Direct NIC access (poll mode drivers)
  ✅ Can handle millions of packets per second
  ✅ Used by major vendors (Intel, Cisco, etc.)

Architecture

Subscriber → NIC (DPDK PMD) → DPDK vBNG → RADIUS (Zal Ultra)
                ↓
           Kernel Bypass
                ↓
          User Space Processing

Installation

bash

# Install DPDK
apt-get install -y dpdk dpdk-dev

# Install build tools
apt-get install -y build-essential meson ninja-build python3-pyelftools

# Clone DPDK
cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/DPDK/dpdk.git
cd dpdk

# Build DPDK
meson build
cd build
ninja
ninja install
ldconfig

# Setup hugepages
echo 1024 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages
mkdir -p /mnt/huge
mount -t hugetlbfs nodev /mnt/huge

# Make permanent
echo "vm.nr_hugepages=1024" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
echo "nodev /mnt/huge hugetlbfs defaults 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

Configure DPDK vBNG

bash

# Bind NIC to DPDK
dpdk-devbind.py --status
dpdk-devbind.py --bind=vfio-pci 0000:01:00.0

# Configure vBNG (example using VPP)
# See VPP section below

VPP BNG Setup

What is VPP?

VPP = Vector Packet Processing (FD.io)
  ✅ Cisco's open-source high-performance framework
  ✅ Built on DPDK
  ✅ Supports PPPoE, L2TP, IPoE
  ✅ Advanced routing and switching
  ✅ Can handle 100+ Gbps on commodity hardware

Installation

bash

# Add VPP repository
curl -s https://packagecloud.io/install/repositories/fdio/release/script.deb.sh | bash

# Install VPP
apt-get install -y vpp vpp-plugin-core vpp-plugin-dpdk

# Start VPP
systemctl start vpp
systemctl enable vpp

Configure VPP for PPPoE

bash

# Connect to VPP CLI
vppctl

# Configure interfaces
create host-interface name eth1
set interface state host-eth1 up
set interface ip address host-eth1 192.168.1.1/24

create host-interface name eth0
set interface state host-eth0 up

# Configure PPPoE
pppoe create server host-eth1

# Configure RADIUS
radius add server 192.168.1.100 key YourSecretKey123

# Configure IP pool
ip pool add 10.10.1.2 - 10.10.1.254

# Enable NAT
nat44 add interface address host-eth0
set interface nat44 in host-eth1 out host-eth0

Bison BNG Setup

What is Bison BNG?

Bison BNG = Open-source BNG solution
  ✅ Modern BNG implementation
  ✅ Supports PPPoE, IPoE
  ✅ RADIUS AAA integration
  ✅ High performance
  ✅ Container-ready

Installation

bash

# Install dependencies
apt-get install -y golang-go git

# Clone Bison BNG
cd /opt
git clone https://github.com/bison-bng/bison-bng.git
cd bison-bng

# Build
make build

# Install
make install

Configure Bison BNG

bash

# Create configuration
cat > /etc/bison-bng/config.yaml << 'EOF'
server:
  interfaces:
    - name: eth1
      type: pppoe
      
radius:
  servers:
    - address: 192.168.1.100
      port: 1812
      secret: YourSecretKey123
      accounting_port: 1813
      coa_port: 3799
      
  nas:
    identifier: BISON-BNG-01
    ip_address: 192.168.1.1
    
pools:
  - name: default
    range: 10.10.1.2-10.10.1.254
    gateway: 10.10.0.1
    
pppoe:
  service_name: ISP-PPPoE
  ac_name: ISP-BISON-BNG
  mtu: 1492
  authentication:
    - chap
    - pap
    
dns:
  primary: 8.8.8.8
  secondary: 8.8.4.4
EOF

# Start Bison BNG
systemctl start bison-bng
systemctl enable bison-bng

Performance Tuning

System Optimization

bash

# Increase file descriptors
echo "* soft nofile 65535" >> /etc/security/limits.conf
echo "* hard nofile 65535" >> /etc/security/limits.conf

# Kernel tuning
cat >> /etc/sysctl.conf << 'EOF'
# Network performance
net.core.rmem_max=134217728
net.core.wmem_max=134217728
net.ipv4.tcp_rmem=4096 87380 67108864
net.ipv4.tcp_wmem=4096 65536 67108864
net.core.netdev_max_backlog=5000
net.ipv4.tcp_congestion_control=bbr

# Connection tracking
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_max=1000000
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_tcp_timeout_established=7200

# IP forwarding
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1
net.ipv4.conf.all.forwarding=1
EOF

sysctl -p

CPU Affinity

bash

# Pin Accel-PPP to specific CPUs
taskset -cp 0-3 $(pidof accel-pppd)

# For DPDK/VPP, configure in startup config
# Isolate CPUs for packet processing
echo "isolcpus=1-7" >> /etc/default/grub
update-grub
reboot

Monitoring & Troubleshooting

Accel-PPP Monitoring

bash

# CLI commands
telnet 127.0.0.1 2000

show sessions
show sessions ifname pppoe0
show stat
show radius stat

# Log monitoring
tail -f /var/log/accel-ppp/accel-ppp.log
tail -f /var/log/accel-ppp/auth-fail.log

# Session count
echo "show sessions" | nc 127.0.0.1 2001 | grep -c "pppoe"

Performance Monitoring

bash

# CPU usage
top -p $(pidof accel-pppd)

# Network statistics
ifconfig pppoe0
ip -s link show pppoe0

# Connection tracking
cat /proc/sys/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_count
cat /proc/sys/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_max

Common Issues

Issue 1: High CPU Usage

bash

# Check thread count
grep thread-count /etc/accel-ppp.conf

# Increase threads (match CPU cores)
thread-count=8

# Restart service
systemctl restart accel-ppp

Issue 2: Session Limit Reached

bash

# Check current sessions
echo "show stat" | nc 127.0.0.1 2001

# Increase kernel limits
ulimit -n 65535

# Check conntrack
cat /proc/sys/net/netfilter/nf_conntrack_max

Issue 3: RADIUS Timeout

bash

# Check RADIUS connectivity
ping 192.168.1.100

# Increase timeout
timeout=5

# Check RADIUS logs in Zal Ultra
# Network → RADIUS Logs

Best Practices

Security

✅ Use strong RADIUS secret
✅ Restrict management access (CLI, SNMP)
✅ Enable firewall rules
✅ Use single-session=replace to prevent duplicates
✅ Monitor failed authentication attempts
✅ Regular security updates

Performance

✅ Use DPDK/VPP for high-capacity networks
✅ Tune kernel parameters
✅ Use CPU affinity for packet processing
✅ Monitor system resources
✅ Use appropriate thread count
✅ Enable hardware offloading if available

Reliability

✅ Use systemd for automatic restart
✅ Monitor service health
✅ Set up redundant RADIUS servers
✅ Regular backups of configuration
✅ Test failover scenarios
✅ Monitor logs for errors

Capacity Planning

Hardware Recommendations

Small ISP (< 1,000 users):

CPU: 4 cores
RAM: 8 GB
NIC: 1 Gbps
Storage: 50 GB SSD
Software: Accel-PPP

Medium ISP (1,000 - 10,000 users):

CPU: 8-16 cores
RAM: 16-32 GB
NIC: 10 Gbps
Storage: 100 GB SSD
Software: Accel-PPP or VPP

Large ISP (10,000+ users):

CPU: 16+ cores (high clock speed)
RAM: 64+ GB
NIC: 10/25/40 Gbps with DPDK support
Storage: 200 GB NVMe SSD
Software: DPDK + VPP or Bison BNG

📘 PPPoE Overview - MikroTik setup
📗 Cisco PPPoE - Cisco IOS/IOS-XE
📙 Juniper PPPoE - JunOS setup
🔐 RADIUS Setup - FreeRADIUS configuration

Summary

✅ vBNG & Bison BNG Setup Complete!

What We Covered:

✅ Accel-PPP installation and configuration
✅ DPDK high-performance setup
✅ VPP BNG configuration
✅ Bison BNG setup
✅ Performance tuning
✅ Monitoring and troubleshooting

Key Points:

✅ Accel-PPP: Best for small-medium ISPs
✅ DPDK/VPP: Best for high-capacity networks
✅ Bison BNG: Modern, container-ready solution
✅ Proper tuning essential for performance
✅ Monitor system resources regularly

Your virtual BNG is ready for Zal Ultra! 🚀

vBNG & Bison BNG PPPoE Setup Guide ​

Overview ​

Table of Contents ​

Accel-PPP Setup ​

What is Accel-PPP? ​

Step 1: Install Accel-PPP ​

Step 2: Configure Accel-PPP ​

Step 3: Configure Network Interface ​

Step 4: Configure NAT ​

Step 5: Start Accel-PPP ​

Step 6: Verify Configuration ​

DPDK vBNG Setup ​

What is DPDK? ​

Architecture ​

Installation ​

Configure DPDK vBNG ​

VPP BNG Setup ​

What is VPP? ​

Installation ​

Configure VPP for PPPoE ​

Bison BNG Setup ​

What is Bison BNG? ​

Installation ​

Configure Bison BNG ​

Performance Tuning ​

System Optimization ​

CPU Affinity ​

Monitoring & Troubleshooting ​

Accel-PPP Monitoring ​

Performance Monitoring ​

Common Issues ​

Best Practices ​

Security ​

Performance ​

Reliability ​

Capacity Planning ​

Hardware Recommendations ​

Related Documentation ​

Summary ​

vBNG & Bison BNG PPPoE Setup Guide

Overview

Table of Contents

Accel-PPP Setup

What is Accel-PPP?

Step 1: Install Accel-PPP

Step 2: Configure Accel-PPP

Step 3: Configure Network Interface

Step 4: Configure NAT

Step 5: Start Accel-PPP

Step 6: Verify Configuration

DPDK vBNG Setup

What is DPDK?

Architecture

Installation

Configure DPDK vBNG

VPP BNG Setup

What is VPP?

Installation

Configure VPP for PPPoE

Bison BNG Setup

What is Bison BNG?

Installation

Configure Bison BNG

Performance Tuning

System Optimization

CPU Affinity

Monitoring & Troubleshooting

Accel-PPP Monitoring

Performance Monitoring

Common Issues

Best Practices

Security

Performance

Reliability

Capacity Planning

Hardware Recommendations

Related Documentation

Summary