Patent ID: 7457256

Claim:
A local area network comprising at least one peripheral equipment adapted to effect layer 2 switching and including physical link aggregation means, and at least first and second core equipments adapted to effect layer 2 switching and including physical link aggregation means, said peripheral equipment being connected to said first and second core equipments respectively by at least first and second physical links, and said first and second core equipments being connected to each other by at least one third physical link, in which network said first and second core equipments respectively comprise first and second management means each adapted to detect the presence of the core equipment in which they are not installed via said third physical link coupling them and in the event of mutual detection to instruct the transmission of a common identifier to said peripheral equipment so that it considers said first and second core equipments as a single layer 2 switch and its aggregation means aggregate said first and second physical links with said aggregation means of said first and second core equipments.