EtherChannel

One of the best ways to lower STP’s convergence time is to avoid convergence altogether. EtherChannel provides a way to prevent STP convergence from being needed when only a single port or cable failure occurs.

EtherChannel combines multiple parallel segments of equal speed between the same pair of switches, bundled into an EtherChannel. The switches treat the EtherChannel as a single interface with regard to STP. As a result, if one of the links fails, but at least one of the links is up, STP convergence does not have to occur. For example, Figure 11-9 shows the familiar three-switch network, but now with two Gigabit Ethernet connections between each pair of switches.

Figure 11-9 Two-Segment EtherChannels Between Switches

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