Overview - Allied Telesis AT-2400 Series Installation Manual

AT-2916T, AT-2970, and AT-2971 VLAN and Link Aggregation

Overview

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Link aggregation or "trunking" is a method of combining physical
network links into a single logical link for increased bandwidth. With link
aggregation, it is possible to increase the capacity and availability of the
communications channel between devices (both switches and end
stations) using existing Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet technology.
Two or more Gigabit Ethernet connections are combined into a team in
order to increase the bandwidth capability and to create resilient and
redundant links. A set of multiple parallel physical links between two
devices is grouped together to form a single logical link. Link
aggregation offers an efficient and low-cost solution to increase
bandwidth between server and switch. Another advantage it provides is
that if a connection fails completely the remaining links can take over
the traffic and thus replace the broken line.
Link aggregation also provides load balancing where the processing and
communications activity is distributed across several links so that no
single link is overwhelmed.
By taking multiple LAN connections and treating them as a unified,
aggregated link, practical benefits can be achieved in many applications.
Link aggregation provides the following important benefits:
Higher link availability
Increased link capacity
Improvements are obtained using existing hardware (no
upgrading to higher-capacity link technology is necessary)
Demanding applications running in high-performance environments
like servers in enterprises, web servers, and intranet servers gain
particularly from the high-bandwidth and duplex capabilities of link
aggregation.
Allied Telesyn provides a link aggregation driver for Windows 2000 and
Windows XP. In order for the AT-2916T, AT-2970, and AT-2971 link
aggregation to work, a switch with 802.3ad with LACP is required.
This section explains how to install the Allied Telesyn Network
Installation Package Setup on a machine running Windows 2000 and
Windows XP (x86). This package consists of the Miniport driver, the
Virtual LAN (VLAN) intermediate driver, the Link Aggregation (LAGG)
intermediate driver and the configuration utility Allied Telesyn, Inc.
Network Control.