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C
HAPTER
2: O
PTIMIZING
B
ANDWIDTH
Traffic Distribution and Link Failure on Aggregated Links
To maximize throughput, all traffic is distributed across the individual links
that make up an aggregated link. Therefore, when a packet is made
available for transmission down an aggregated link, a hardware-based
traffic distribution mechanism determines which particular port in the link
should be used; this mechanism uses the MAC address. The traffic is
distributed among the member links as efficiently as possible.
To avoid the potential problem of out-of-sequence packets (or “packet
re-ordering”), the Switch ensures that all the conversations between a
given pair of endstations will pass through the same port in the
aggregated link. Single-to-multiple endstation conversations, on the
other hand, may still take place over different ports.
If the link state on any of the ports in an aggregated link becomes
inactive due to link failure, then the Switch will automatically redirect the
aggregated link traffic to the remaining ports. Aggregated links therefore
provide built-in resilience for your network.
The Switch also has a mechanism to prevent the possible occurrence of
packet re-ordering when a link recovers too soon after a failure.