A method for providing resilient packet communications in a network, comprising: instantiating a physical layer link aggregation protocol associated with links of the network for packet communications, said protocol including grouping multiple links of the links (60, 62, 64, 66) of said network as a link aggregation group; instantiating a failure detection algorithm, the failure detection algorithm configured to detect a failure per-link in the link aggregation group, the failure detection algorithm using a physical layer of the network to detect the failure in the link aggregation group; and implementing the physical layer link aggregation protocol with the failure detection algorithm and load balancing in combination, wherein upon detection of a failure in one or more links in the link aggregation group, said implementation automatically redistributes traffic among a reduced number of available links in the link aggregation group in order to render communications of packets through the network resilient to the failure and causes a shaper in a data link layer of the network to reduce frame transmission rate based on the reduced number of available links, wherein the load balancing uses the physical layer of the network, wherein for load balancing, each frame, or each group of frames, is segmented and associated with the link aggregation group in the network for its transmission and reception, and the implementation of said combination further detects recovery of the failures in the one or more links of said link aggregation group, and upon detection of the recovery of the failure, the implementation of said combination automatically redistributes traffic among an increased number of available links including one or more recovered links, and causes the shaper to increase the frame transmission rate based on the increased number of available links. instantiating a physical layer link aggregation protocol associated with links of the network for packet communications, said protocol including grouping multiple links of the links (60, 62, 64, 66) of said network as a link aggregation group; instantiating a failure detection algorithm, the failure detection algorithm configured to detect a failure per-link in the link aggregation group, the failure detection algorithm using a physical layer of the network to detect the failure in the link aggregation group; and implementing the physical layer link aggregation protocol with the failure detection algorithm and load balancing in combination, wherein upon detection of a failure in one or more links in the link aggregation group, said implementation automatically redistributes traffic among a reduced number of available links in the link aggregation group in order to render communications of packets through the network resilient to the failure and causes a shaper in a data link layer of the network to reduce frame transmission rate based on the reduced number of available links, wherein the load balancing uses the physical layer of the network, wherein for load balancing, each frame, or each group of frames, is segmented and associated with the link aggregation group in the network for its transmission and reception, and the implementation of said combination further detects recovery of the failures in the one or more links of said link aggregation group, and upon detection of the recovery of the failure, the implementation of said combination automatically redistributes traffic among an increased number of available links including one or more recovered links, and causes the shaper to increase the frame transmission rate based on the increased number of available links.