Aggregated Links 23
Aggregated Links Aggregated links are connections that allow devices to communicate 
using multiple member links in parallel. Aggregated links provide the 
following benefits:
■ They can potentially increase the bandwidth of a connection. The 
capacity of the multiple links is combined into one logical link.
■ They can provide redundancy — if one link is broken, the other link 
will still pass traffic.
You Switch supports aggregated links on the 10/100/1000 and SFP ports 
25-26 on the Switch 3226, 49-50 on the Switch 3250). An aggregation 
can be created by using both 10/100/1000 ports, both SFP ports or one 
SFP port and one 10/100/1000 port. Your Switch does not support 
aggregated links on the 10/100 ports.
When an SFP module is inserted it has priority over the 10/100/1000 port 
of the same number (25-26 on the Switch 3226, 49-50 on the Switch 
3250). The corresponding 10/100/1000 port is disabled when an SFP 
module is present.
Figure 1
 shows two Switches connected using an aggregated link 
containing two member links. If both ports on both Switch units are 
configured as 1000BASE-TX and they are operating in full duplex, the 
potential maximum bandwidth of the connection is 2 Gbps.
Figure 1   Switch units connected using an aggregated link
.
How 802.3ad Link
Aggregation
Operates
Your Switch supports IEEE Std 802.3-2002 (incorporating 802.3ad) 
aggregated links which use the Link Aggregation Control Protocol 
(LACP). LACP provides automatic, point-to-point redundancy between 
two devices (switch-to-switch or switch-to-server) that have full duplex 
connections operating at the same speed.
Switc
Switch
Aggregated Link