EtherChannel can be estalished using one of the following three mechanisims:
LACP IEEE’s negotiation protocol (802.3ab)
PAgP Cisco’s negotation protocol
Static persistence No negotation protocol
LACP PAgP Static Persistence
| Active | Passive | |
| Active | Yes | Yes |
| Passive | Yes | No |
| Desirable | Auto | |
| Desirable | Yes | Yes |
| Auto | Yes | No |
| No | |
| On | Yes |
- Ports become active according to their port priority.
- A lower number means higher priority
- Commonly up to 16 links can be assigned to an EtherChannel, but only 8 can be active at a time.
- Nonactive links are placed into a standby state and are enabled if one of the acitve links goes down.
- The maximum number of active links in an EtherChannel varies between switchs.
