3Com 3824 Implementation Guide - Page 24
Aggregated Link - Manual Configuration Example
UPC - 662705467528
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24 CHAPTER 2: OPTIMIZING BANDWIDTH ■ Before removing an entire aggregated link, you must disable all the aggregated link ports or disconnect all the links, except one - if you do not, a loop may be created. ■ When manually creating an aggregated link between two devices, the ports in the aggregated link must not be physically connected together until the aggregated link has been correctly configured at both ends of the link. Failure to configure the aggregated link at both ends before physically connecting the ports can result in a number of serious network issues such as lost packets and network loops. Traffic Distribution and Link Failure on Aggregated Links To maximize throughput, all traffic is distributed across the individual links that make up an aggregated link. Therefore, when a packet is made available for transmission down an aggregated link, a hardware-based traffic distribution mechanism determines which particular port in the link should be used. The traffic is distributed among the member links as efficiently as possible. To avoid the potential problem of out-of-sequence packets (or "packet re-ordering"), the Switch ensures that all the conversations between a given pair of endstations will pass through the same port in the aggregated link. Single-to-multiple endstation conversations, on the other hand, may still take place over different ports. If the link state on any of the ports in an aggregated link becomes inactive due to link failure, then the Switch will automatically redirect the aggregated link traffic to the remaining ports. Aggregated links therefore provide built-in resilience for your network. The Switch also has a mechanism to prevent the possible occurrence of packet re-ordering when a link recovers too soon after a failure. Aggregated Link - Manual Configuration Example The example shown in Figure 6 illustrates an 8 Gbps aggregated link between two Switch units, (that is, each port is operating at 1000 Mbps, full duplex).