Allied Telesis AT-S25 - Manual (Page 70)

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Configuring Port Trunks
Port trunking is an economical way for you to increase the bandwidth
between an AT-8300 Series switch and another network device, such as
a server, router, workstation, or another switch. A port trunk is two or
more data ports that have been grouped together to increase the
bandwidth between a switch and a network node by functioning as one
logical path. This increase in bandwidth can prove useful in situations
where a single connection between the switch and a node is insufficient
to handle the traffic load.
Despite the software configuration and physical connections, there are
no data loops in aggregated links because of load balancing. The port
trunk always sends packets from a particular source to a particular
destination over the same link within the trunk. A single link is
designated for flooding broadcasts and packets of unknown destination.
With the AT-8316F Series and AT-8324 switches, you can create port
trunks of two, four, or eight ports. You can also trunk the ports on an
expansion module to increase the bandwidth from an expansion
module to another network device.
Guidelines
When creating a port trunk, observe the following guidelines:
Guideline 1: Selecting the Number of Ports in a Trunk
A port trunk must consist of 2, 4, or 8 ports.
Guideline 2: Selecting Ports from the Same Switch in a Stack
The ports of a port trunk must be from the same switch in the stack. A
port trunk cannot consist of ports from different switches.