Patent ID: 7881230

Claim:
A method allowing a switch to self-configure a logical connection corresponding to a plurality of physical links, comprising: receiving Link Aggregation Control Protocol Data Units (LACPDUs) from a plurality of peer devices, wherein said receiving is performed by the switch connected via the plurality of physical links to each one of said peer devices, wherein each one of said LACPDUs includes a system identifier that uniquely identifies the respective peer device relative to each other peer device connected to the switch, and wherein the system identifier of each one of said peer devices is a globally unique identifier that is a concatenation of only a globally administered system address of a respective one of said peer devices and a system priority; assessing the system identifier contained by each one of said LACPDUs for providing discovery of the respective peer device that sent each one of said LACPDUs, wherein providing said discovery includes uniquely identifies all ports of the switch that are connected to a given peer device and wherein all information carried by each one of said LACPDUs other than the system identifier is ignored during said discovery; automatically assigning a link aggregation key to a physical link used by the switch for receiving a respective one of said LACPDUs in response to receiving each one of said LACPDUs, wherein assigning the link aggregation key is performed exclusively by the switch and wherein said assigning of the link aggregation key is based on the system identifier in the respective one of the LACPDUs; enabling Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) functionality on said all ports of said switch prior to receiving an of said LACPDUs wherein each one of said physical links includes a connection to the switch via one of said ports; automatically disabling said LACP functionality on one of said ports in response to at least one of the switch not receiving one of said LACPDUs via said one port during a predefined duration of time, a link corresponding to said one port being administratively disabled, and the link corresponding to said one port being subjected to a link-down event; and automatically re-enabling said LACP functionality on said one port in response to at least one of the switch receiving one of said LACPDUs via said one port after the predefined duration of time expires, the link corresponding to said one port being administratively enabled, and the link corresponding to said one port being subjected to a link-up event.