Link Aggregation

 Refers to the implementation of a trunk link that builds an association to allow the physical links
to operate as a single logical link and acts as a direct point-to-point link, between two devices
such as peering routers, switches, or a router and switch combination at each end of the link.

 Physical link of a member interface to switch traffic to another member link in the event that a
particular interface fails.

 Link Aggregation provides:

Application in the Enterprise Network

 Link aggregation is often applied in areas of the enterprise network where high speed
connectivity and the potential for congestion is likely to occur.
 Application is made at critical points to enhance throughput
 The example demonstrates how core switches (SWA & SWB) support link aggregation over
member links that interconnect the two core switch devices, as a means of ensuring that
congestion does not build at a critical point in the network.

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Types of Link Aggregation Modes
o Link aggregation supports two modes of implementation, a manual load balancing mode and
static LACP mode.
o In manual load balancing mode, member interfaces are manually added to a link aggregation
group (LAG). All of the interfaces configured with load balancing are set in a forwarding state.
The manual load balancing mode does not use the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP),
therefore the routers can use this mode if the peer device does not support LACP.

o In static LACP mode, devices at two ends of a link negotiate aggregation parameters by
exchanging LACP packets. After the negotiation is complete, the two devices determine the
active interface and the inactive interface. In this mode, it is necessary to manually create an
Eth-Trunk and add members to it. LACP negotiation determines which interfaces are active and
which ones are inactive.
o The static LACP mode is also referred to as M:N mode, where M signifies the active member
links which forward data in a load balancing mode, and N represents those links inactive but
providing redundancy.
o If an active link fails, data forwarding is switched to the backup link with the highest priority, and
the status of the backup link changes to active. In static LACP mode, some links may function as
backup links, whereas all member interfaces work in a forwarding state in manual load
balancing mode, and represents the main difference between the two modes.

Data Flow Control

o As a logical interface for binding multiple physical interfaces and relaying upper-layer data, a
trunk interface must ensure that all parameters of the physical interfaces (member interfaces)
on both ends of the trunk link be consistent. This includes the number of physical interfaces, the
transmission rates and duplex modes of the physical interfaces, and the traffic-control modes of
the physical interfaces, for which it should be noted that member interfaces can be layer 2 or
layer 3 interfaces. Where the interface speed is not consistent, it is still possible for the trunk
link to operate, however the interfaces operating at a lower rate are likely to experience loss of
frames.
o In addition, the sequence of the data flow must be unchanged. A data flow can be considered as
a group of frames with the same MAC address and IP address. For example, the telnet or FTP

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 connection between two devices can be considered as a data flow. If the trunk interface is not
configured, frames that belong to a data flow can still reach their destination in the correct
order because data flows are transmitted over a single physical link. When the trunk technology
is used, multiple physical links are bound to the same trunk link, and frames are transmitted
along these physical links. If the first frame is transmitted over one physical link, and the second
frame is transmitted over another physical link, it is possible that the second frame may reach
the destination earlier than the first frame.

o To prevent the disorder of frames, a frame forwarding mechanism is used to ensure that frames
in the same data flow reach the destination in the correct sequence. This mechanism
differentiates data flows based on their MAC addresses or IP addresses. In this manner, frames
belonging to the same data flow are transmitted over the same physical link. After the frame
forwarding mechanism is used, frames are transmitted based on the following rules:
- Frames with the same source MAC addresses are transmitted over the same
physical link.
- Frames with the same destination MAC addresses are transmitted over the same
physical link.
- Frames with the same source IP addresses are transmitted over the same physical
link.
- Frames with the same destination IP addresses are transmitted over the same
physical link.
- Frames with the same source and destination MAC addresses are transmitted over
the same physical link.
- Frames with the same source and destination IP addresses are transmitted over the
same physical link.

Configuring Link Aggregation in Layer 2 Device

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 o trunk-id - any integer value from 0 through to 63
o An Eth-Trunk can only be deleted if the Eth-Trunk does not contain any member interfaces
o An Eth-Trunk can support a maximum of eight member interfaces.
o An Eth-Trunk interface cannot have other Eth-Trunk interfaces as member interfaces.
o An Ethernet interface can be added to only one Eth-trunk interface.
o The peer interface directly connected to a member interface of the local Eth-Trunk must also be
added to an Eth-Trunk, otherwise the two ends cannot communicate.
o When member interfaces have different rates, the interfaces with lower rates may become
congested and packet loss may occur.
o After an interface is added to an Eth-Trunk, MAC address learning is performed by the Eth-Trunk
rather than the member interfaces.
o Link Aggregation requires the binding of the physical member interfaces to the Eth-trunk.

Create Eth-Trunk 1 and set the load balancing mode of the Eth-Trunk to static
LACP mode.

Verify that the LACP-static mode has been enabled on the two links.
[SWA] display eth-trunk

Set the system priority on SWA to 100 to ensure SWB remains the Actor.
[SWA] lacp priority 100

Set the priority of the interface and determine active links on S1.
[SWA] interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/1
[SWA-GigabitEthernet0/0/1] lacp priority 100
[SWA-GigabitEthernet0/0/1] quit
[SWA] Interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/2
[SWA-GigabitEthernet0/0/2] lacp priority 100

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Configuring Link Aggregation in Layer 3 Device
In order to configure layer 3 Link Aggregation on an Ethernet trunk link, it is necessary to transition the
trunk from layer 2 to layer 3 using the undo portswitch command under the Eth-trunk logical interface.
Once the undo portswitch command has been performed, an IP address can be assigned to the logical
interface and the physical member interfaces that are to be associated with the Ethernet trunk link can
be added.

Displaying Aggregation

 Using the display interface eth-trunk <trunk-id> command it is possible to confirm the successful
implementation of Link Aggregation between the two peering devices. The command can also
be used to collect traffic statistics and locate faults on the interface.
 The current state of the Eth-trunk is set to UP, signaling that the interface is operating normally.
Where the interface shows as down, this signal that an error has occurred at the physical layer,
whereas an administratively down error reflects that the shutdown command has be used on
the interface.