INVESTIGATION OF VRRP FUNCTIONALITY AND RECOVERY TIME BASED ON ECOROUTER SOLUTIONS

The study addresses the growing use of the domestic EcoRouter platform amid import substitution of network infrastructure, while its implementation of VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) remains insufficiently studied in terms of performance and stability under controlled virtualized laboratory conditions. The purpose is to evaluate the functional capabilities and VRRP recovery behavior in EcoRouter and to develop practical recommendations for configuring fault-tolerance parameters. The study was conducted in a virtualized lab environment based on GNS3 and VirtualBox using EcoRouterOS routers. The topology included two routers, two switches, and four client hosts forming two network segments, each with an independent VRRP group. The iperf3 and Wireshark tools evaluated Master/Backup switchover time, temporary transfer interruption, and advertisement interval while varying the advertisement-interval, preempt-mode, and switch-back-delay parameters. With the default advertisement-interval value (50), the switchover time is about 1.5 s, while increasing the parameter to 3000 raises it to 60 s; excessively small values (5) cause unstable role “flapping.” The switch-back-delay parameter affects how quickly the Master role returns but not the advertisement interval, while disabling preempt-mode blocks automatic restoration of the priority role. The results confirm that the VRRP implementation in EcoRouter provides the declared fault tolerance when parameters are configured correctly, enabling practical recommendations for network engineers on balancing failure-response speed against stability. The findings can be applied to designing domestic fault-tolerant network infrastructures and in teaching networking courses.