The solution? MulitiLinkX!
MultiLinkx enables you to gather several links together and turn them
into one virtual link (link aggregation). This provides you with more
bandwidth between the switches, and thus more throughput. Multi-
LinkX can accept a maximum of 16 ports per aggregation, and up to 8
aggregations can be created on a switch.
Working with PTPv2 on MultiLinkX
When working with PTPv2 (Precision Time Protocol v2), you’ll notice an
inverted PTPv2 icon to indicate the PTPv2 enabled port is in an aggre-
gation. You must always link the lowest ports of the active aggregation
to each other to avoid problems with the PTPv2. It is recommended to
never create a cross link between ports in a diff erent order.
1 + 1 is NOT 2!
By adding an additional link into the aggregation, it’s easy to think you’ll
have double the bandwidth available.
However, MulitLinkX relies on LACP (Link Aggregation Control Proto-
col). The algorithm used by the protocol requires several parameters
of the Ethernet frame to decide to which port of the aggregation the
frame will be forwarded.
The protocol uses the following parameters:
Source Mac Address
Source IP Address
Source Port (TCP/UDP)
Destination IP Address
Destination Port (TCP/UDP)
The ports included in the aggregation
Rx: 400Mbps
Rx: 400Mbps
Rx: 400Mbps
Rx: 400Mbps
Tx: 400Mbps
Tx: 400Mbps
Tx: 400Mbps
1000Mbps
+1000Mbps
Tx: 400Mbps
In some circumstances it might happen that several data streams will
be forwarded to the same port. To know where the data stream will be
forwarded to, you can have a look at our aggregation planning web
page. Type the following link into the address bar of your favourite web
browser:
http://IPOFMYSWITCH/aggregation_code.html
According to the parameters of your Ethernet frame, the page will
show you which port will be in use. This allows you to predict, but also
to solve some problems. In the unlikely event of an overloaded link in
an aggregation, the user can solve the problem by simply changing
the appropriate IP address for the source, for example.
MultiLinkX technology is available on the ISL ports only!
It is also a good habit to allocate the specifi c number of links
in an aggregation to fulfi l your throughput requirements, plus
one link. If one link fails, you’ll still have the minimum number
of necessary links to transfer all your data!
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3 | GIGACORE FEATURES EXPLAINED /
3.3 MULTILINKX
