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LACP & Link Bonding: Aggregated Link Internals

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Link aggregation: combining multiple links into one logical bundle

A 10GbE link between two switches caps at 10Gbps. Add a second 10GbE link and configure LACP, and you get a 20Gbps logical channel — with the bonus that either link can fail without disrupting traffic. This is Link Aggregation (LAG), standardized as IEEE 802.3ad (later absorbed into 802.1AX).

LACP (Link Aggregation Control Protocol) is the negotiation protocol: both sides exchange PDUs to agree on which physical links form the bundle, verify the connection is bidirectional, and detect failures within seconds.

Packets in motion — click to inspect:

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