PORT CHANNEL VS ETHERCHANNEL – Difference in Port Channel & Etherchannel

Rashmi Bhardwaj | Blog,BUZZ
Advertisements

At times network administrators working on switching infrastructure may get confused over usage of terms Port Channel and Etherchannel especially in Cisco Catalyst and Nexus Switches.

While both terms refer to the bundling of Interfaces for higher throughput and redundancy, let’s discuss them in more detail.

PORT CHANNEL VS ETHERCHANNEL

 

What Is Etherchannel –

Etherchannel is a Cisco trademarked term – it’s the technology used to group multiple physical interfaces together while other vendors use Link Aggregation more frequently. Etherchannel is what Cisco called Ethernet link bond initially. We can create Etherchannel using PAgP, LACP, or static on. PAgP being Cisco’s proprietary protocol and LACP being the open standard

Advertisements

Related – EtherChannel Modes

What is Port Channel –

Term “Port-channel” is the name of this virtual interface in cisco IOS platforms. In the Nexus switches, the port-channel term is used for technology and the individual interface. Once we have configured an Etherchannel we make all you changes on the Port Channel interface and these will be automatically applied to all the individual interfaces within the Etherchannel.

Still, we can also say in layman terms  that  “Port-Channel” = “Etherchannel” = “Link Aggregation”

Port channel vs Etherchannel –

PARAMETER
PORT CHANNEL
ETHERCHANNEL
Terminology
The "Port-channel" is the name of this virtual interface in IOS
Etherchannel is the name of the technology used to group multiple physical links
Cisco’s way of distinguishing
Port-channel is the name of Cisco's virtual interface for the purpose of Link aggregation
Etherchannel is a term used by Cisco to describe a link aggregation

Download the difference table here.

 

 

Related- Nexus Interview Questions

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Advertisements

1 thought on “PORT CHANNEL VS ETHERCHANNEL – Difference in Port Channel & Etherchannel”

  1. Thanks for this post. Working on an issue regarding port channels and didn’t fully understood the difference until now. Well done and concise.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Shopping Cart
Select your currency
USD United States (US) dollar
Scroll to Top