Aggregate And Redundant Interfaces - Black Box SmartPath LWN602A User Manual

Chapter 3: The SmartPath AP (LWN602HA) Overview
• No adjustments are needed when the power level is 20 W (watts) or higher. If the available power drops to a range between 18
and 20 W, the SmartPath AP disables its ETH1 interface, assuming that it is drawing power through its ETH0 interface. If it is
drawing power solely through its ETH1 interface, then it disables its ETH0 interface instead.
• If the power level drops to the 15–18 W range, the SmartPath AP then switches from 3x3 MIMO (Multiple In, Multiple Out) to
2x3 (see Section 3.4.1, MIMO).
• In rare cases when the power drops between 13.6 and 15 W and further power conservation is necessary, the SmartPath AP
reduces the speed on its active Ethernet interface—ETH0 or ETH1—from 10/100/1000 Mbps to 10/100 Mbps.
• Finally, if there is a problem with the PoE switch or Ethernet cable, and the power falls between 0 and 13.6 W, the SmartPath
AP disables its wireless interfaces and returns its ETH0 and ETH1 interfaces to 10-/100-/1000-Mbps speeds.
Through the application of smart PoE, the SmartPath AP can make power usage adjustments so that it can continue functioning
even when the available power level drops.

3.2.2 Aggregate and Redundant Interfaces

By default ETH0 and ETH1 act as two individual Ethernet interfaces. When both interfaces are connected to the network and are
in backhaul mode, the SmartPath AP transmits broadcast traffic only through ETH0. The SmartPath AP transmits broadcast traffic
through ETH1 only when ETH0 does not have network connectivity. When both Ethernet interfaces are connected to the network
and are in access mode, then the SmartPath AP transmits broadcast traffic through all the access interfaces: ETH0, ETH1, and all
wireless subinterfaces in access mode.
In addition to using ETH0 and ETH1 as individual interfaces, you can combine them into an aggregate interface (agg0) to increase
throughput, or combine them into a redundant interface (red0) to increase reliability. The logical red0 and agg0 interfaces support
all the settings that you can configure for Ethernet interfaces except those pertaining to physical link characteristics such as link
speed. For configuration information, see the next sections.
Aggregate Interface
You can increase throughput onto the wired network by combining ETH0 and ETH1 into a single logically aggregated interface
called "agg0". The aggregate interface effectively doubles the bandwidth that each physical interface has when used individually.
In this configuration, both Ethernet ports actively forward traffic, the SmartPath AP applying an internal scheduling mechanism
based on the source MAC address of each packet to send traffic through the aggregate member interfaces. To configure an
aggregate interface, enter the following commands:
interface eth0 bind agg0
interface eth1 bind agg0
In addition to configuring the SmartPath AP, you must also configure the connecting switch to support EtherChannel. For exam-
ple, the following commands bind two physical Ethernet ports—0/1 and 0/2—to the logical interface port-channel group 1 on a
Cisco Catalyst 2900 switch running Cisco IOS 12.2:
® ®
Switch#conf t
Switch(config)#interface port-channel 1
Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
Switch(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast
Switch(config-if)#exit
Switch(config)#interface fastEthernet 0/1
Switch(config-if)#switchport mode access
Switch(config-if)#channel-group 1 mode on
Switch(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast
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