M A G N U M 6 K S W I T C H E S , M N S - 6 K U S E R G U I D EChapter1616 – Link Aggregation ControlProtocol (LACP)Increase Network throughput and reliabilityink aggregation Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is part of an IEEEspecification (IEEE 802.3ad) that allows several physical ports to be grouped orbundled together to form a single logical channel. This increases the throughputacross two devices and provides improved reliability.L LTLACP conceptshe IEEE802.3ad standard provides for the formation of a singleayer 2 link from two or more standard Ethernet links using theLink Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). LACP provides arobust means of assuring that both ends of the link are up and agree to be membersof the aggregation before the link member is activated. LACP trunking is a methodof combining physical network links into a single logical link for increasedbandwidth. With LACP the effective bandwidth of a trunk and network availability isincreased. Two or more Fast Ethernet connections are combined as one logicaltrunk 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:j• Higher link availability – in case a link fails, the other links continue tooperate• Increased link capacity – the effective throughput is increased• Better port utilization – allows unused ports to be used as trunk portsallowing better throughput and availability• Interoperability – being a standard allows LACP to work across differenthardware platforms where LACP is supportedFailure of any one physical link will not impact the logical link defined using LACP.The loss of a link within an aggregation reduces the available capacity, but theconnection is maintained and the data flow is not interrupted.193
