My TN Connection

Have you ever looked at a data sheet for an Ethernet switch and wondered what all of the features and functions actually do or mean? Are there features or functions that you should implement into your network? What do some of these features do and what are real life applications for them?

If any of this sounds familiar to you or if you are just looking for additional information regarding features in Ethernet switches and the applications in which they are used, I hope you will read this series. This series of posts should help eliminate any confusion you may have regarding Ethernet switch features and functions. I will be writing these posts on a specific feature each time as to not overwhelm you and to allow you to pick and choose the posts that best serve your needs and interests. So sit back and enjoy this series on Common Features in Ethernet Switches.

First In The Series - Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is also sometimes known as trunking or by the IEEE standard of 802.3ad. LACP is a method of combining physical network links into a single logical link for increased bandwidth. With LACP we are able to increase the throughput between two Ethernet switches and provide redundancy of the links between the switches. Two or more Ethernet connections are combined in order to increase the bandwidth capability and to create resilient and redundant links when using LACP.

One of the easiest ways to think about LACP is in your everyday life and traffic congestion. If you are sitting in traffic one of the ways to alleviate congestion would be to add another traffic lane. This is the same principle with LACP in Ethernet switches. You are essentially adding traffic lanes.

LACP provides the following benefits:

• Higher link availability: LACP prevents the failure of any single component link from leading to a disruption of the communications between the interconnected switches. The loss of a link within a LACP group reduces the available capacity, but the connection is maintained and data flow is not interrupted.

• Increased Link Capacity: Performance between switches is improved because the capacity of the aggregated link is higher than each individual link alone. Standard Ethernet LAN technology provides data rates of 10/100/1000Mbs. LACP can fill the gaps of these available data rates when an intermediate performance level is required.

Curious how to use LACP in your network?

If the link capacity needs to be increased between switches you may need to upgrade hardware (Ethernet Switches, NIC cards) in addition to the network infrastructure (Twisted pair copper replaced with fiber optic cabling). LACP gives you the option of aggregating two or more lower speed links instead of having to do an upgrade that may include hardware and infrastructure. Link aggregation is a cost effective method of increasing capacity between switches without replacing hardware since this feature is on most managed Ethernet switches today. Also there may be times when LACP is the only option to increase bandwidth rates because the highest data rates available on switches may not be sufficient for your application.

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