Table of Contents
Advertisement
Overview
This chapter explains how to configure and monitor SmartTRUNKs on the Internet
Appliance (IA). A SmartTRUNK is Cabletron's technology for load balancing and load
sharing. For a description of the SmartTRUNK commands, see the "smarttrunk
Command" section of the Internet Appliance Command Line Interface Reference.
On the IA, a SmartTRUNK is a group of two or more ports that have been logically
combined into a single port. Multiple physical connections between devices are
aggregated into a single logical high-speed path that acts as a single link. Traffic is
balanced across all interfaces in the combined link, thereby increasing overall available
system bandwidth.
SmartTRUNKs allow administrators to increase bandwidth at congestion points in the
network, thus eliminating potential traffic bottlenecks. SmartTRUNKs also provide
improved data-link resiliency. If one port in a SmartTRUNK should fail, its load is
distributed evenly among the remaining ports and the entire SmartTRUNK link remains
operational.
SmartTRUNK is Cabletron's standard for building high-performance links between
Cabletron's switching platforms. SmartTRUNKs can interoperate with switches, routers,
and servers from other vendors as well as Cabletron platforms.
SmartTRUNKs are compatible with all IA features, including VLANs, STP, VRRP, etc.
SmartTRUNK operation is supported over different media types and a variety of
technologies including 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet.
Internet Appliance User Reference Manual
Chapter 3
SmartTRUNK
Configuration
Guide
49
Advertisement
Table of Contents
