Patent ID: 7881185

Claim:
A network device comprising: a first plurality of ports and a first plurality of communication links, wherein each port of the first plurality of ports communicates with a corresponding communication link of the first plurality of communication links; an adapter to: aggregate the first plurality of communication links into a first plurality of aggregated links; and assign a single media access control address to each aggregated link of the first plurality of aggregated links; and a driver to: select a first aggregated link of the first plurality of aggregated links as an active link based on a link quality of the first aggregated link; send and receive data over the first aggregated link using the single media access control address assigned to the first aggregated link; and select a second aggregated link of the first plurality of aggregated links as the active link in response to the link quality of the first aggregated link being less than a link quality of the second aggregated link, wherein the driver selects the first aggregated link as the active link further based on a status of a switch associated with at least one of the first plurality of aggregated links.