3Com 4007 Implementation Manual page 228

228 C 12: T
HAPTER RUNKING
When multiple links are trunked, it can be difficult to manage and
troubleshoot individual port-to-port connections if a connectivity
problem occurs. This issue may not be of concern in a server farm
room. But if you use trunking extensively between wiring closets and
data centers, the large number of connections involved and their
distributed nature may make their management and troubleshooting
difficult. 3Com recommends that you apply trunking only within data
center and campus interconnect areas.
3Com uses a three-tiered framework to describe the different
functional areas in a local area network (LAN):
Wiring closet — This area provides connections to user
workstations. It also includes downlinks into the data center or
campus interconnect.
Data center — This area receives connections from wiring closets
and campus interconnect areas. Most local server farms reside
here.
Campus Interconnect — This area only appears as a separate
location in larger networks; smaller networks usually have just
wiring closets and data centers. The campus interconnect links
campus data centers to each other, and may also include an
enterprise server farm and connections to a wide area network.
3Com recommends that you use trunks to increase network
availability in the following scenarios:
Switch-to-switch connections in the data center and campus
interconnect areas
Switch-to-server connections in the data center and campus
interconnect areas
Downlinks from the data center to the campus interconnect
The trunking feature in 3Com switches is currently a proprietary
implementation. No de facto standards exist.