Configuring LAG and In-Band Management on a PTP820C

Link Aggregation (LAG) allows the grouping of several physical Ethernet interfaces or radio links into one logical interface.  This logical interface is known as a LAG group.  LAG provides redundancy for Ethernet interfaces and radio links.   LAG can also be used to aggregate these interfaces allowing for a channel size greater than 1 Gbps using only one PTP820C link.  In-band management allows remote management of the unit via its radio and/or Ethernet interfaces without a separate cable connected to the local management port.  For more information on the benefits of LAG and in-band management and how to configure these features, refer to the sections Configuring Link Aggregation (LAG) and Configuring In-Band Management of the PTP820C and PTP820S User Guide.

Configuring LAG with In-Band Management on a PTP820C Link Using Out-of-Band Management

In order to allow in-band management over a PTP820C link when using Link Aggregation groups you must create a static LAG of the switch ports, a LAG of the PTP820C Ethernet ports, and a LAG of the PTP820C radio ports.  In this case it’s assumed that a connection to the local management port (out-of-band management) is available.

The figure below shows the configuration that will be created.

820 LAG.png 

Create Static LAG at the Switch

Create a static LAG of two Ethernet ports at the switch at each end of the link.

Create PTP820C LAG Groups

LAG setup can be found under Ethernet > Interfaces > Groups > LAG

  • Before adding an interface to a LAG group, disable the interfaces from the Interface Manager (Platform > Management > Interface Manager)
  • Create a LAG containing the two PTP820C Ethernet ports (Slot 1, Port 1 and Slot 1, Port 2)
  • Create a LAG containing the two PTP820C radio ports (Slot 2, Port 1 and Slot 2 Port 2)

Create the Point to Point Service

Service setup can be found under Ethernet > Services
Create the P2P Ethernet service

 

Create the Service Points

To create the service points, select the service you want to add a service point to under Ethernet > Services, and then click Service Points. Create two service points in the P2P service:
• Service point one should be a PIPE dot1q with the interface location set to the name of the LAG you created for the Ethernet ports
• Service point two should be a PIPE dot1q with the interface location set to the name of the LAG you created for the Radio ports

 

  • Add the same two service points under the MGT service

Repeat all of the above steps on the second PTP820C to complete the in-band management over LAG setup.

Configuring LAG with In-Band Management on a PTP820C Link Using Only In-Band Management

Configuring LAG on an in-service 820C link while using only in-band management requires a little more work. In order to enable LAG, it’s necessary to disable the Ethernet ports before adding them to the LAG group, but when you disable the Ethernet ports you’ll lose in-band management over those ports. There is a way around this without using out-of-band management. You can use the over-the-air in-band management from one end of the link to configure the other side. Below are the steps to perform at each end of the link to complete a LAG configuration while using in-band management.

Assume Site A is local and Site B is remote.

Connected to the local switch – Site A:

  1. Starting with a single P2P PIPE service on a PTP820C link
  2. Login to the Site B radio from the Site A location
  3. Disable ETH1 and ETH2 from the interface manager
  4. Delete ETH service points from the P2P and MNG services
  5. Create a LAG group which includes ETH1 and ETH2
  6. Enable ETH1 and ETH2 from the interface manager
  7. Add the ETH1/ETH2 LAG as a service point in the MNG service with VLAN tag
  8. Create LAG of two ports on the Site B switch with the same MNG VLAN tag
  9. You can now log into Site B from the Site B switch – here we found that you will create a loop, so leave one port of the new LAG group disabled at the switch until setup is complete.

Connected to the remote switch – Site B:

  1. Login to the Site A radio from the Site B location
  2. Disable ETH1 and ETH2 from the interface manager
  3. Delete ETH service points from the P2P and MNG services
  4. Create a LAG group which includes ETH1 and ETH2
  5. Enable ETH1 and ETH2 from the interface manager
  6. Add the ETH1/ETH2 LAG as a service point in the MNG service with management VLAN tag
  7. Login to the Site B radio
  8. Delete the radio port from the MNG service
  9. Create a LAG group which includes Radio Port 1 and Radio Port 2
  10. Add the Radio LAG group to the MNG service with over-the-air management VLAN tag

Connected to the local switch – Site A:

  1. Create LAG of two ports on Site A switch with the same MNG VLAN tag, keeping one port of the switch LAG disabled until setup is complete
  2. Login to Site A radio
  3. Delete the radio port from the MNG service
  4. Create a LAG group which includes Radio Port 1 and Radio Port 2
  5. Add the Radio LAG group to the MNG service with the over-the-air management VLAN tag
  6. Enable the second port of the LAG on the Site A switch

Connected to the remote switch – Site B:

  1. Enable the second port of the LAG on the Site B switch
  2. You should now have management access to both ends of the link
  3. On both side of the link, add the ETH and Radio LAGs as service points for the P2P service
  4. Setup is complete

If you need any help with this procedure, please contact Cambium Support at support.cambiumnetworks.com.

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