MULTILINK ML3000 ETHERNET COMMUNICATIONS SWITCH – INSTRUCTION MANUAL 17–1
Multilink ML3000
Ethernet Communications Switch
Chapter 17: LACP
GE Energy
LACP
17.1 Increase Network throughput and reliability
17.1.1 LACP Concepts
The IEEE802.3ad standard provides for the formation of a single Layer 2 link from two or
more standard Ethernet links using the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). LACP
provides a robust means of assuring that both ends of the link are up and agree to be
members of the aggregation before the link member is activated. LACP trunking is a
method of combining physical network links into a single logical link for increased
bandwidth. With LACP the effective bandwidth of a trunk and network availability is
increased. Two or more Fast Ethernet connections are combined as one logical trunk in
order to increase the bandwidth and to create resilient and redundant links. By taking
multiple LAN connections and treating them as a unified, aggregated link, Link
Aggregation provides the following important benefits:
• Higher link availability – in case a link fails, the other links continue to operate
• Increased link capacity – the effective throughput is increased
• Better port utilization – allows unused ports to be used as trunk ports allowing better
throughput and availability
• Interoperability – being a standard allows LACP to work across different hardware
platforms where LACP is supported
Failure of any one physical link does not impact the logical link defined using LACP. The
loss of a link within an aggregation reduces the available capacity, but the connection is
maintained and the data flow is not interrupted.
The performance is improved because the capacity of an aggregated link is higher than
each individual link alone. 10 Mbps or 10/100 Mbps or 100 Mbps ports can be grouped
together to form one logical link.
Instead of adding new hardware to increase speed on a trunk – one can now use LACP to
incrementally increase the throughput in the network, preventing or deferring hardware
upgrades. Some known issues with LACP on the Multilink 3000 family of switches are:
• LACP does not work on Half Duplex ports
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