Enterasys Networks Fast Network 10 manual Enabling Trunking, Trunk Connections

Enabling Trunking

3.5 ENABLING TRUNKING

If your network configuration requires you to connect two or more FN10s together, but the applications you are running over the network require more than 10 Mbps of bandwidth per connection, you can use the built-in trunking feature to increase bandwidth up to 80 Mbps, without installing additional hardware on your network.

Trunking is a Cabletron Systems proprietary extension to the 802.1D Spanning Tree algorithm. It enables you to use multiple 10BASE-T Ethernet segments to connect FN10s together, while maintaining first-in, first-out ordering of Ethernet packets. In addition, if any of the Ethernet segments configured for trunking become inoperable, those Ethernet segments are automatically bypassed.

Figure 3-1 shows two FN10s connected by four 10BASE-T crossover cables. You can connect up to eight ports for sharing the traffic load. Any additional connected ports will become standby ports. The connections must be point-to-point. That is, there cannot be any other devices on the Ethernet segments.

FastNET 10

10BASE-T Crossover Cables (providing 40 Mbps of bandwidth)

FastNET 10

Figure 3-1 Trunk Connections

Fast Network 10 User Guide Page 3-7