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• Broadcom Teaming Software Component
4.3.4 Hardware Requirements
The various teaming modes described in this manual place certain restrictions on the networking
equipment used to connect clients to teamed systems. Each type of network interconnect technology
has an effect on teaming as described in the following sections.
• Repeater Hub
A Repeater Hub allows a network administrator to extend an Ethernet network beyond the limits
of an individual segment. The repeater regenerates the input signal received on one port onto all
other connected ports, forming a single collision domain. This means that when a station attached
to a repeater sends an Ethernet frame to another station, every station within the same collision
domain will also receive that message. If two stations begin transmitting at the same time, a
collision occurs, and each transmitting station must retransmit its data after waiting a short
(random) amount of time.
The use of a repeater requires that each station participating within the collision domain operate in
half-duplex mode. Although half-duplex mode is supported for Gigabit Ethernet adapters in the
IEEE 802.3 specification, half-duplex mode is not supported by the majority of Gigabit Ethernet
adapter manufacturers. Therefore, half-duplex mode will not be considered here.
Teaming across hubs is supported for troubleshooting purposes (such as connecting a network
analyzer) for SLB teams only.
•Switching Hub
Unlike a repeater hub, a switching hub (or more simply a switch) allows an Ethernet network to be
broken into multiple collision domains. The switch is responsible for forwarding Ethernet packets
between hosts based solely on Ethernet MAC addresses. A physical network adapter that is
attached to a switch may operate in half-duplex or full-duplex mode.
To support Generic Trunking and 802.3ad Link Aggregation, a switch must specifically support
such functionality. If the switch does not support these protocols, it may still be used for Smart
Load Balancing.
Software
Component
Broadcom Name Windows File Name
– Virtual Bus Driver (VBD) bxvbdx.sys
bxvbda.sys
*
Miniport Driver Broadcom Base Driver bxnd50x.sys
bxnd51x.sys
bxnd51a.sys
*
bxnd52x.sys
bxnd52a.sys*
Intermediate
Driver
Broadcom Advanced Server
Program (BASP)
Baspxp32.sys
Baspw2k.sys
Configuration
User Interface
Broadcom Advanced Control Suite
2 (BACS2)
BACS2
*: For 64-bit systems