Patent ID: 7478154

Claim:
A method of interconnecting a network infrastructure via a plurality of communication links comprising: defining a link affinity grouping based on a plurality of criteria including throughput for round-robin scheduling and throughput for a next available link scheduling; classifying the plurality of communication links according to a link affinity grouping; enabling and disabling selective ones of the plurality of communication links according to the link affinity grouping; activating a particular link selected from among the enabled communication links using a selection process adapted to characteristics of the link affinity grouping; analyzing performance of the enabled communication links individually and in aggregate; determining based on the analysis, whether altering assignment of links of two link affinity groups will improve throughput of both groups; and defining the link affinity grouping (LAG) based on a plurality of criteria further including classification as primary and secondary link groups for replication of a logical unit (LUN) group, classification into intra-LAG groups, classification into inter-LAG partial inclusion groups, classification into inter-LAG full inclusion groups, classification as outbound (failover) links, and classification as inbound (failback) links.