Benefits of Network Link Aggregation | Generated by AI
Question: What is the primary benefit of link aggregation?
Answer:
The correct answer is B) It increases bandwidth and provides redundancy on backbone links.
Link aggregation (also known as EtherChannel in Cisco terminology, or LACP/IEEE 802.1AX) combines multiple physical Ethernet links into a single logical link. This primarily achieves two key benefits:
- Increased bandwidth: Traffic is load-balanced across the bundled links, allowing higher aggregate throughput than a single link could provide.
- Redundancy/fault tolerance: If one physical link fails, traffic is redistributed over the remaining links, preventing outage.
The other options are incorrect because:
- A) Preventing network loops is the role of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), not link aggregation.
- C) Automatic IP address assignment is handled by DHCP.
- D) Traffic encryption between switches is provided by protocols like MACsec, not link aggregation.