Introduction to Link Aggregation
This section describes definition and purpose of link aggregation.
Definition
Link aggregation is a technique to bundle multiple physical links to a logical link to increase link bandwidth.
Link aggregation refers to Eth-Trunk in this document. An Eth-Trunk consists of Ethernet links.
Purpose
As the network scale expands increasingly, users propose increasingly higher requirements on Ethernet backbone network bandwidth and reliability. Traditional technologies often use devices supporting high-speed interfaces to increase the bandwidth.This solution, however, is costly and inflexible.
Link aggregation helps increase bandwidth by bundling a group of physical interfaces into a single logical interface, without having to upgrade hardware. In addition, link aggregation provides link backup mechanisms, greatly improving link reliability.
Link aggregation has the following advantages:
Increased bandwidth
The bandwidth of the link aggregation interface is the sum of bandwidth of member interfaces.
Higher reliability
When the physical link of a member interface fails, the traffic on the member link is switched to another member link, ensuring uninterrupted service on the trunk link.
Load balancing
In an LAG, traffic is load balanced among active member interfaces.
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