In today’s fast-paced digital world, ensuring your network runs smoothly and efficiently is more important than ever. SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) solutions like Cisco Meraki offer powerful features to optimize network paths, improve application performance, and reduce costs. One of the standout capabilities in Meraki’s SD-WAN is Path Optimization—a smart way to automatically select the best route for your traffic based on real-time network conditions.
If you’re ready to harness the benefits of SD-WAN path optimization using the Meraki dashboard GUI, this guide will walk you through the process step-by-step with clarity and ease. Let’s dive in!
What is SD-WAN Path Optimization?
Before we jump into implementation, let’s quickly define what path optimization does. Traditional WANs often route traffic over fixed circuits, regardless of congestion, packet loss, or latency. Path optimization in SD-WAN continuously monitors multiple WAN links and dynamically routes traffic over the best available path. This means your critical applications get priority bandwidth and your end users enjoy a seamless experience.
Meraki’s intuitive cloud-managed dashboard makes enabling and configuring this feature accessible for IT teams of all sizes.
Step-by-Step Guide to Configure SD-WAN Path Optimization via Meraki GUI
Step 1: Log into Your Meraki Dashboard
- Go to dashboard.meraki.com and sign in.
- Navigate to Security & SD-WAN from the left-hand menu.
- Select the network you want to configure if you have multiple networks.
Step 2: Access the SD-WAN & Traffic Shaping Settings
- Within the selected network, click on Configure > SD-WAN & traffic shaping.
- This page shows your WAN interfaces, uplink quality metrics, and routing options.
Step 3: Enable and Configure Path Selection Rules
- Scroll down to the Uplink selection or Path selection section.
- By default, Meraki uses the Performance-based routing (PBR) feature, which automatically measures latency, jitter, and loss.
- Ensure Use performance-based routing is enabled.
- Here, you can specify thresholds that determine when Meraki should steer traffic away from a link—for example, setting acceptable latency, packet loss percentage, or jitter values.
Step 4: Define Traffic Shaping and Prioritization (Optional but Recommended)
- Still within Traffic shaping, set priorities for your vital applications or traffic types.
- Add rules by clicking Add a shaping rule, selecting the application or destination, and assigning bandwidth limits or priority levels.
- This ensures that important traffic receives optimal routing and bandwidth allocation during peak usage.
Step 5: Verify WAN Interface Quality Settings
- Check the real-time WAN health indicators shown alongside your uplinks.
- Meraki continuously monitors metrics for each link.
- If a link doesn’t meet the quality benchmarks, traffic automatically shifts to healthier paths—based on your PBR configurations.
Step 6: Save Your Settings and Monitor Performance
- Click Save to apply all changes.
- Head to the Network-wide > Events page to monitor ongoing WAN performance and path selection actions.
- Over time, review your traffic patterns to fine-tune thresholds and priorities.
Why Use Meraki’s SD-WAN Path Optimization?
- Automatic adjustments: Removes manual intervention by adapting to network conditions in real-time.
- Improved reliability: Keeps your network connections stable even during outages or slowdowns.
- Better user experience: Prioritizes critical apps like VoIP, video conferencing, and cloud services.
- Cost savings: Allows intelligent use of less expensive internet links while maintaining high performance.
Final Thoughts
Setting up SD-WAN path optimization in Meraki’s dashboard is designed to be straightforward, even for IT professionals who may not be SD-WAN specialists. The GUI guides you through options with clear metrics and default settings that work well for most networks. But the best part is that it gives you control and customization where needed—right at your fingertips.
By optimizing your WAN paths and shaping traffic effectively, you’re paving the way to a smarter, faster, and more resilient network that meets the demands of modern businesses.
If you’re managing a multi-branch environment or embracing cloud-first strategies, Meraki’s SD-WAN path optimization is an essential tool to keep your network performance top-notch. Take a few minutes today to explore these settings and transform how your traffic flows!
