Netgear FSM726v3 7000 Series Managed Switch Administration Guide for Software - Page 70

Chapter 4 Link Aggregation This chapter includes instructions for configuring Link Aggregation (LAG). The following examples are provided: • "Create Two LAGs" on page 4-2 • "Add the Ports to the LAGs" on page 4-3 • "Enable Both LAGs" on page 4-5 Link Aggregation (LAG) allows the switch to treat multiple physical links between two end-points as a single logical link. All the physical links in a given LAG must operate in full-duplex mode at the same speed. LAG can be used to directly connect two switches when the traffic between them requires high bandwidth and reliability, or to provide a higher bandwidth connection to a public network. Management functions treat a LAG as if it were a single physical port. You can include a LAG in a VLAN. You can configure more than one LAG for a given switch. LAG offers the following benefits: • Increased reliability and availability-if one of the physical links in the LAG goes down, traffic is dynamically and transparently reassigned to one of the other physical links. • Better use of physical resources-traffic can be load-balanced across the physical links. • Increased bandwidth-the aggregated physical links deliver higher bandwidth than each individual link. • Incremental increase in bandwidth-a physical upgrade could produce a 10-times increase in bandwidth; LAG produces a two- or five-times increase, useful if only a small increase is needed. 4-1 v1.0, October 2009