Link Aggregation

Link Aggregation (LAG) bundles multiple physical Ethernet links into a single high-bandwidth port-channel for enhanced performance and redundancy.

LAG provides load balancing across physical interfaces and improves reliability. The port-channel stays operational as long as at least one physical interface within the port-channel is operational.

LAG uses various system components such as messaging infrastructure, L2 Protocol Services, Forwarding Services, and Stratum.

Each LAG consists of the following components:

Links of the same speed
A MAC address that is different from the MAC addresses of the individual LAG member links.
An interface index for each link for neighboring devices to identify.
An administrative key for each link. Only the links with the same administrative key value can be aggregated into a LAG.
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) automatically configures an administrative key value equal to the port-channel identification number on each configured link.

Note

A port can either be an individual port or a member port-channel.

A port associated with an ingress-group or egress configuration cannot be configured as a member port-channel until its active configurations are cleared.