Suggested maximum number of ports for link aggregation?

[mbrownnyc]

Hello,

We will be relocating our main office within the same building, but will likely keep a majority of our infrastructure on a separate floor.

I am looking into a solution to maintain a low latency, high bandwidth interconnection between the two locations.

Logically, interconnecting by using the 1000BASE-X SFP ports seemed to be the best idea.

Is there a suggested maximum number of ports to maintain stable link aggregation?

Thanks,

Matt

[showneek]

Hi,

you will be probably limited by number of SFP ports you have on both sides and number of fibre links between the side. The other factor you have to keep in mind is the amount of traffic between two locations and the number of "conversation" (usually defined by source/destination MAC address pair) which will flow through this aggregated link. This is important for traffic load balancing in aggregated link. More unique conversations will lead to more effective load balancing. Two physical links in link aggregation is minimum of course, maybe four links should be adequate but it depends on factors above. Maximum is usually limited by eight links.

BR,

Jan

[mbrownnyc]

Thanks Jan.

That number 8 was what I was looking for.

I should have no problems using the 4 SFP links then.

Thanks,

Matt