Administrator Guide

Port Channel Interfaces
Port channel interfaces support link aggregation, as described in IEEE Standard 802.3ad.
This section covers the following topics:
• Port Channel Denition and Standards
• Port Channel Benets
• Port Channel Implementation
• Conguration Tasks for Port Channel Interfaces
Port Channel Denition and Standards
Link aggregation is dened by IEEE 802.3ad as a method of grouping multiple physical interfaces into a single logical interface—a link
aggregation group (LAG) or port channel.
A LAG is “a group of links that appear to a MAC client as if they were a single link” according to IEEE 802.3ad. In Dell EMC Networking OS,
a LAG is referred to as a port channel interface.
A port channel provides redundancy by aggregating physical interfaces into one logical interface. If one physical interface goes down in the
port channel, another physical interface carries the trac.
Port Channel Benets
A port channel interface provides many benets, including easy management, link redundancy, and sharing.
Port channels are transparent to network congurations and can be modied and managed as one interface. For example, you congure
one IP address for the group and that IP address is used for all routed trac on the port channel.
With this feature, you can create larger-capacity interfaces by utilizing a group of lower-speed links. For example, you can build a 5-Gigabit
interface by aggregating ve 1-Gigabit Ethernet interfaces together. If one of the ve interfaces fails, trac is redistributed across the
remaining interfaces.
Port Channel Implementation
Dell EMC Networking OS supports static and dynamic port channels.
• Static — Port channels that are statically congured.
• Dynamic — Port channels that are dynamically congured using the link aggregation control protocol (LACP). For details, see Link
Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP).
The port channel ID ranges from 1 to 128.
As soon as you congure a port channel, Dell EMC Networking OS treats it like a physical interface. For example, IEEE 802.1Q tagging is
maintained while the physical interface is in the port channel.
Member ports of a LAG are added and programmed into the hardware in a predictable order based on the port ID, instead of in the order in
which the ports come up. With this implementation, load balancing yields predictable results across device reloads.
A physical interface can belong to only one port channel at a time.
Each port channel must contain interfaces of the same interface type/speed.
Port channels can contain a mix of 1G/10G. The interface speed that the port channel uses is determined by the rst port channel member
that is physically up. Dell EMC Networking OS disables the interfaces that do not match the interface speed that the rst channel member
Interfaces
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