Interconnected Devices with selective Internet Access

In this scenario:

• Some devices are connected to the Internet, some are not
• The Internet connections are direct
• Devices communicate with each other via standard Equinix Metal networking
• Devices use both public and private IPs allocated by Equinix Metal
• Devices may be all in one metro or in multiple metros

Each and every device receives a private IPv4 address; those that should be connected to the Internet also receive a public address. Each device is on its own private subnet, to which just the device and its upstream router are connected.

• Devices with both public and private addresses will be able to communicate with other devices in the project, using the private addresses.
• Devices with just private addresses will be able to communicate only with other devices in the project, but not with the Internet.

For those devices which have public addresses, all packets bound for the Internet, upon reaching the upstream router, will be recognized as coming from the given device and passed onwards, while packets inbound from the Internet for the public address will be recognized and routed to the specific device.

Both the public and the private addresses are provided and managed by Equinix Metal.

Multiple Metros

If you wish to deploy devices in multiple metros while enabling communications between them, it depends on which devices need to communicate between metros.

• If the public devices need to communicate between metros, they can communicate over the Internet, or using a VPN.
• If the private devices need to communicate between metros, whether with other private devices or public devices, then you must use Backend Transfer.

Since you will not want to be forced to restrict which devices can connect, and understanding communications flows can be extremely complex when only some devices have access, yet all want to connect to other metros, we recommend Backend Transfer for this scenario.