Nortel Networks 450 manual MultiLink Trunking, Port Mirroring, Autosensing and Autonegotiation

Using the BayStack 450 10/100/1000 Series Switch

MultiLink Trunking

The MultiLink Trunking feature allows you to group multiple ports (up to four) together when forming a link to another switch or server, thus increasing aggregate throughput of the interconnection between two devices, up to 800 Mb/s in full-duplexmode. BayStack 450 switches can be configured with up to six MultiLink Trunks. The trunk members can be configured within a single unit in the stack or distributed between any of the units within the stack configuration (distributed trunking).

For more information about the MultiLink Trunking feature, see “ MultiLink Trunks” on page 1-57.

Port Mirroring

The port mirroring feature (sometimes referred to as conversation steering) allows you to designate a single switch port as a traffic monitor for up to two specified ports or two media access control (MAC) addresses. You can specify port-basedmonitoring, where all traffic on specified ports is monitored, or address-basedmonitoring, where traffic between specified MAC addresses is monitored. You can attach a probe device (such as a Nortel Networks StackProbe, or equivalent) to the designated monitor port.

For more information about the port mirroring feature, see “ Port Mirroring (Conversation Steering)” on page 1-76.

Autosensing and Autonegotiation

BayStack 450 switches are autosensing and autonegotiating devices:

•The term autosense refers to a port’s ability to sense the speed of an attached device.

•The term autonegotiation refers to a standardized protocol (IEEE 802.3u) that exists between two IEEE 802.3u-capable devices. Autonegotiation allows the BayStack 450 switch to select the best of both speed and duplex modes.

Autosensing is used when the attached device is not capable of autonegotiation or is using a form of autonegotiation that is not compatible with the IEEE 802.3u autonegotiation standard. In this case, because it is not possible to sense the duplex mode of the attached device, the BayStack 450 switch reverts to half-duplex mode.

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