As you may know, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers a few months ago finished its work on 802.3ad, its standard for link aggregation.
Link aggregation provides a way for multiple Ethernet, Fast Ethernet or Gigabit Ethernet connections to be logically grouped as one link. This provides both added bandwidth and resiliency, if one link fails. One reader recently wrote in with this question: "Does the proposed IEEE standard concern only switches, or does this standard extend to NICs [network interface cards] as well?" Yes, it also extends to NICs. Typically, you might run several 100M bit/sec lines from a server to a switch. Using multiple NICs in the server protects against failures of either a single NIC or a single cable connection. Vendors for some time have implemented their own, proprietary methods for aggregating links. While these often interoperate on a basic level, it is a good idea to request your vendors adhere to IEEE 802.3ad in the future.RELATED LINKS
In addition to writing this newsletter, Jeff Caruso edits Network World's e-mail newsletters from his office on New York's Long Island. If you would like to make suggestions about newsletter format or content, or even just express your opinion on today's topic, you can reach Jeff at jcaruso@nww.com.
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