Port trunking allows you to assign up to eight physical links to one logical link (trunk) that functions as a single, higher-speed link providing dramatically increased bandwidth. This capability applies to connections between backbone devices as well as to connections in other network areas where traffic bottlenecks exist. A trunk group is a set of up to eight ports configured as members of the same port trunk. The ports in a trunk group do not have to be consecutive. For Example:
With full-duplex operation in a eight-port trunk group, trunking enables the following bandwidth capabilities:
All port trunk links must be point-to-point connections between a switch and another switch, router, server, or workstation configured for port trunking. No intervening, non-trunking devices are allowed. It is important to note that ports on both ends of a port trunk group must have the same mode (speed and duplex) and flow control settings.