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Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E Switch Software Configuration Guide
OL-9775-02
Chapter37 Configuring EtherChannels and Link-State Tracking
Understanding EtherChannels
•Load-Balancing and Forwarding Methods, page 37-8
•EtherChannel and Switch Stacks, page 37-10
EtherChannel Overview
An EtherChannel consists of individual Gigabit Ethernet links bundled i nto a single logical link as
shown in Figure 37-1.
Figure37-1 Typical EtherChannel Configuration
The EtherChannel provides full-duplex bandwidth up to 8 Gb/s (Gigabit EtherChannel) or 80 Gb/ s
(10-Gigabit EtherChannel) between your switch and another switch or host.
Each EtherChannel can consist of up to eight compatibly configured Ethernet ports. All ports in each
EtherChannel must be configured as either Layer 2 or La yer 3 ports. The number of EtherChannels is
limited to 48. For more information, see the “EtherChannel Configuration Guidelines” section on
page 37-12. The EtherChannel Layer 3 ports are made up of routed ports. Routed port s are physical ports
configured to be in Layer 3 mode by using the no switchport interface configuration command. For
more information, see the Chapter11, “Configuring Interface Characteristics.”
101237
Catalyst 8500
series switch
Gigabit EtherChannel
Workstations
10/100
Switched
links
Workstations
10/100
Switched
links
1000BASE-X 1000BASE-X