[e2e] Open the floodgate - back to 1st principles

Ghanwani, Anoop anoop.ghanwani at hp.com
Mon Apr 26 12:52:47 PDT 2004


> Yes. If memory serves, the IEEE link-aggregation spec requires all
> frames in a MAC-level flow (a unicast source-MAC/destination-MAC pair)
> to be forwarded over the same link in an aggregation group.  The spec
> explains that this done is to avoid reordering of frames within a
> `flow'. Clearly, somebody gave them the impression that reordering
> traffic was a Very Bad Thing.

Actually, the spec doesn't define what a flow is...it just
says that all packets that belong to a flow must be put on the 
same link within the aggregate.  It's up to an implementer to
decide what consitutes a flow.  In other words, an implementer
may choose to use the (IP SA, IP DA, TCP src port, TCP dst port)
to decide which link to put a frame on.  That would allow frames 
with the same MAC SA/DA (but different values in one or more
of the other fields) to end up on different links. 

Anoop 


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