Local Area High Speed Networks

Summary Points

• Link aggregation, which also is called trunking, combines a set of links so that they behave like a single link, which is called a virtual link.

• Link aggregation improves network capacity and availability.

• The link aggregation standard applies only to full-duplex Ethernet links.

• All links in an aggregated group must operate at the same speed.

• The link aggregation control protocol automatically groups links and regroups them after a link addition, deletion, or failure.

• Product-specific restrictions sometimes govern the way that link segments can be aggregated.

• A virtual link must have a MAC address. Some implementations automatically use the smallest MAC address assigned to an aggregation port participating in the virtual link.

• The link ...