FYI here is what I have on EC on the NA.

*heh*

<<TRUNKING.html>>

-----Original Message----- From: Bennett Todd [SMTP:bet@newritz.mordor.net] Sent: Tuesday, March 16, 1999 11:48 AM To: tkaczma@gryf.net Cc: toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Etherchannel (was Re: NetApp/Auspex killer?)

1999-03-16-02:01:42 Tom:

...

Speaking of EtherChannel or more generically Link Aggregation. Does anyone know a link describing it in quite a detail without going through

a

...

complete protocol suite definition.

Don't know of a link, would love to see one. But as I understand it, the general strategy is that very roughly each side separately runs simple algorithms to attempt to schmeer traffic over the multiple links. Often the algorithm is based on the MAC addrs of the two endpoints, and so won't yield over 100Mbps for any single link, but will hopefully (3 times out of 4) place competing high-volume connections on separate links.

There are then hacks for failing over to another line when one link drops, and other border-condition exotica.

But the basic idea is that given a large number of communication endpoints, you can schmear the traffic over multiple links quite cheaply.

Dunno if this is any help to you.

-Bennett