Cisco 3560G 48TS Software Configuration Guide - Page 221

Chapter 10 Configuring Interface Characteristics Understanding Interface Types EtherChannel Port Groups EtherChannel port groups provide the ability to treat multiple switch ports as one switch port. These port groups act as a single logical port for high-bandwidth connections between switches or between switches and servers. An EtherChannel balances the traffic load across the links in the channel. If a link within the EtherChannel fails, traffic previously carried over the failed link changes to the remaining links. You can group multiple trunk ports into one logical trunk port, group multiple access ports into one logical access port, or group multiple routed ports into one logical routed port. Most protocols operate over either single ports or aggregated switch ports and do not recognize the physical ports within the port group. Exceptions are the DTP, the Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP), and the Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP), which operate only on physical ports. When you configure an EtherChannel, you create a port-channel logical interface and assign an interface to the EtherChannel. For Layer 3 interfaces, you manually create the logical interface by using the interface port-channel global configuration command. Then you manually assign an interface to the EtherChannel by using the channel-group interface configuration command. For Layer 2 interfaces, use the channel-group interface configuration command to dynamically create the port-channel logical interface. This command binds the physical and logical ports together. For more information, see Chapter 29, "Configuring EtherChannels." Connecting Interfaces Devices within a single VLAN can communicate directly through any switch. Ports in different VLANs cannot exchange data without going through a routing device. With a standard Layer 2 switch, ports in different VLANs have to exchange information through a router. In the configuration shown in Figure 10-1, when Host A in VLAN 20 sends data to Host B in VLAN 30, it must go from Host A to the switch, to the router, back to the switch, and then to Host B. Figure 10-1 Connecting VLANs with Layer 2 Switches Cisco router Switch 78-16156-01 Host A Host B 46647 VLAN 20 VLAN 30 By using the switch with routing enabled, when you configure VLAN 20 and VLAN 30 each with an SVI to which an IP address is assigned, packets can be sent from Host A to Host B directly through the switch with no need for an external router (Figure 10-2). Catalyst 3560 Switch Software Configuration Guide 10-5