Cisco® Field Manual: Catalyst® Switch Configuration

4-4. EtherChannel

• You can aggregate several individual switch ports into a single logical port or EtherChannel.

• Fast Ethernet ports, when bundled together, form a Fast EtherChannel (FEC). Gigabit ports form a Gigabit EtherChannel (GEC).

• You can manually configure EtherChannels or aggregate them through the use of dynamic protocols. PAgP is a Cisco proprietary protocol, whereas Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) is a standards-based protocol defined in IEEE 802.3ad (also known as IEEE 802.3 Clause 43, “Link Aggregation”).

• Frames are distributed onto the individual ports that make up an EtherChannel by using a hashing algorithm. The algorithm can use source, destination, or a combination of source and destination IP addresses, source and destination ...