Policy Routing with Dual WAN based on client MAC address

Difficulty: Advanced

Minimum firmware:  18.1.29

Goal

To use the 6350-SR's cellular modem in tandem with its primary WAN Ethernet port, but always send traffic from certain client device(s) through the cellular modem based on the client MAC address(es).

Setup

This article assumes the LAN ports are operating under default settings, which provide DHCP connectivity to devices connected to the 6350-SR's LAN ports.  For more details on the default settings of the 6350-SR, see the Default Settings section of the 6350-SR User's Manual.

For this setup, you will need the 6350-SR with both a primary WAN Ethernet connection, and a cellular modem connection.

You will also need to the MAC address of any client devices you want to always use the cellular modem connection.

Sample

The sample configuration below shows a 6350-SR with two Internet connections: a cellular-based WAN connection through the 6350-SR's modem, and a broadband-based WAN connection through the 6350-SR's WAN Ethernet port.  

This set setup shows two client devices on a 6350-SR's LAN ports, a VoIP phone and a laptop.   The VoIP phone and the laptop receive their IP address via DHCP from the 6350-SR.

The policy-based routing we are going to setup will accomplish the following.

  1. The 6350-SR uses the Ethernet WAN as its primary interface.
  2. The 6350-SR has a cellular modem connection, used as a secondary WAN interface.
  3. All traffic from the VoIP phone will always go through the cellular modem WAN interface.
  4. Any traffic from other LAN devices should go through the Ethernet WAN connection.
  5. If the Ethernet WAN connection is down, the 6350-SR will send traffic from all client devices through the cellular modem.
    1. (optional) If you would prefer to only allow traffic from the VoIP phone to go through the cellular modem, and block traffic from the laptop from going through the cellular modem, follow steps 1-4 of this guide to setup the relevant firewall rules.

Sample Configuration

Open the configuration profile for the 6350-SR and make the following changes.

  1. Under Network -> Routes -> Policy-based routing, setup a new policy with the following settings:
    1. Interface:  Modem
    2. Source address -> Type:  MAC address
    3. Source address -> MAC address:  52:54:00:c2:a5:43
    4. Destination address -> Type:  Zone
    5. Destination address -> Zone:  External
  2. If you would like to apply the same MAC-based policy route to multiple client devices, create a new policy-based route for each client device, setting them up similar to step 1 above, and inputting the correct MAC address.