Solved: 2x Gig Dedicated Circuits - Load Distribution

lxcollin1 · ‎04-01-2006

Hello,

I will have 2x 1gb dedicated circuits that will connect two different locations. I am thinking about getting 2x 4500 to terminate the circuits. Here is the question, can I rely on CEF to distriute L3 traffic between the two links? I would like to be able to run MLPPP to distribute traffic, but I don't think that will run over ethernet. Any suggestions/comments?

Thanks,

Lee

bhedlund · ‎04-01-2006

If I understand correctly, you have two locations that will connect with 2xGE circuits in parallel terminating on the same switch at each end.

Option 1) Yes, you can configure these circuits as Layer3 on the 4500's with 'no switchport', assign an IP subnet to each link, run a routing protocol like EIGRP or OSPF and CEF will load balance on a per-flow basis

Option 2) You can configure the circuits as an Etherchannel (also known as Portchannel), combining the 2 circuits into one logical 2GE Layer2 link. The switch will load balance a Portchannel based on configurable settings to identify flows with the command 'portchannel load-balance ... '

http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/lan/cat4000/12_2_25a/conf/channel.htm

Please rate all helpful posts.

Regards,

Brad

View solution in original post

bhedlund · ‎04-01-2006