Required Resources 2 switches (Cisco 2960 with the Cisco IOS Release 12.2(46)SE C2960-LANBASEK9-M image or comparable) 2 switches (Cisco 3560 with the Cisco IOS Release 12.2(46)SE C3560- ADVIPSERVICESK9-M image or comparable) All contents are Copyright Cisco Systems, Inc. Depending on the switch model and Cisco IOS Software version, the commands available and output produced might vary from what is shown in this lab. You can use other switches (such as a 2950 or 3550) and Cisco IOS Software versions if they have comparable capabilities and features. Note: This lab uses Cisco WS-C TT-L switches with the Cisco IOS image c2960-lanbasek9-mz se.bin, and Catalyst PS with the Cisco IOS image c3560-advipservicesk9-mz se.bin. In this lab, you configure Port Aggregation Protocol (PAgP), a Cisco EtherChannel protocol, and Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP), an IEEE 802.3ad open standard version of EtherChannel. EtherChannel allows up to eight redundant links to be bundled together into one logical link.
However, using only one link utilizes only half of the available bandwidth. Usually, only one of these links could be used otherwise, a bridging loop might occur. There are redundant uplinks between the access layer and distribution layer. The distribution layer switches are Catalyst 3560 switches, and the access layer switches are Catalyst 2960 switches. 1 Chapter 2 Lab 2-2, Configuring EtherChannel Instructor Version Topology Objective Background Configure EtherChannel.
