Uni-directional link detection (UDLD)
Uni-directional link detection (UDLD) monitors a link between two switches and blocks the ports on both ends of
the link if the link fails at any point between the two devices. This feature is particularly useful for detecting failures
in fiber links and trunks.
on page 95 shows an Example:.
Figure 6: UDLD Example:
In this Example:, each switch load balances traffic across two ports in a trunk group. Without the UDLD feature, a
link failure on a link that is not directly attached to one of the switch remains undetected. As a result, each switch
continue to send traffic on the ports connected to the failed link. When UDLD is enabled on the trunk ports on
each switch, the switches detect the failed link, block the ports connected to the failed link, and use the remaining
ports in the trunk group to forward the traffic.
Similarly, UDLD is effective for monitoring fiber optic links that use two uni-direction fibers to transmit and receive
packets. Without UDLD, if a fiber breaks in one direction, a fiber port may assume the link is still good (because
the other direction is operating normally) and continue to send traffic on the connected ports. UDLD-enabled
ports; however, will prevent traffic from being sent across a bad link by blocking the ports in the event that either
the individual transmitter or receiver for that connection fails.
Ports enabled for UDLD exchange health-check packets once every five seconds (the link-keepalive interval). If a
port does not receive a health-check packet from the port at the other end of the link within the keepalive interval,
the port waits for four more intervals. If the port still does not receive a health-check packet after waiting for five
intervals, the port concludes that the link has failed and blocks the UDLD-enabled port.
When a port is blocked by UDLD, the event is recorded in the switch log or via an SNMP trap (if configured); and
other port blocking protocols, like spanning tree or meshing, will not use the bad link to load balance packets. The
port will remain blocked until the link is unplugged, disabled, or fixed. The port can also be unblocked by disabling
UDLD on the port.
Chapter 3 Port Status and Configuration
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