Using the ProCurve Web Browser Interface

Web Configuration

Aggregation Mode

When incoming data frames are fowarded by the switch over a trunk, the switch must determine which port link in the trunk to use for each outgoing frame. To maintain the frame sequence for traffic flows between devices in the network, the switch also needs to ensure that frames in each “conversation” are mapped to the same trunk link. In order to meet this requirement and to distribute a balanced load across all links in a trunk, the switch uses an algorithm based on the frame source or destination addresses to calculate an output link member in the trunk. However, depending on the device to which a trunk is connected and the traffic flows in the network, this load-balance algorithm may result in traffic being distributed mostly to one port in a trunk.

To ensure that the switch traffic load is distributed evenly across all links in a trunk, the source or destination addresses used in the load-balance calculation can be selected to provide the best result for trunk connections. The switch provides six load-balancing modes that apply for both static and dynamic trunks:

■SMAC: All traffic with the same source MAC address is output on the same link in a trunk. This mode works best for switch-to-switch trunk links where traffic through the switch is received from many different hosts.

■DMAC: All traffic with the same destination MAC address is output on the same link in a trunk. This mode works best for switch-to-switch trunk links where traffic through the switch is destined for many different hosts. Do not use this mode for switch-to-router trunk links where the destina- tion MAC address is the same for all traffic.

■SMAC XOR DMAC: The four least significant bits of the source and destination MAC addresses in a frame are used to determine the output link in the trunk. This mode works best for switch-to-switch trunk links where traffic through the switch is received from and destined for many different hosts. (This mode is the default setting.)

■SMAC XOR DMAC XOR IP-Info: The source and destination MAC addresses and IP information in a frame are used to determine the output link in the trunk. This mode works best for switch-to-switch trunk links where traffic through the switch is received from and destined for many different hosts.

■Pseudo-randomized: The output link in the trunk is randomly selected. This mode is useful for networks where frame ordering within conversa- tions can be neglected and where a high utilization of aggregated links is important.

Web ProCurve the Using Interface Browser

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