Question about switch and load balancing

Montland
Montland Posts: 14  Freshman Member
First Comment
edited August 7 in Switch

Hallo,

I have a more general question regarding network configuration, independent of a specific switch model:

As part of upgrading my network to a fiber-optic internet connection, I’m planning the following structure:

Network Setup:
Router (1x 2.5 Gbps + 4x 1 Gbps LAN ports) (Standard Router aka Fritzbox 5590 Fiber)
↓
Switch (with at least 4x SFP+ ports)
↓
Additional switches

Objective:
All LAN ports of the router (1x 2.5 Gbps + 4x 1 Gbps) should ideally be connected to the first switch to utilize the available bandwidth efficiently. From there, the network load should be distributed via the SFP+ ports to downstream switches.

Question:
Does a switch (e.g., from Zyxel) support the ability to perform some kind of load balancing at its inputs—i.e., the combined use of multiple physical ports from the router—and dynamically distribute the resulting network load across several downstream switches?

My question concerns the general feasibility of such a setup—particularly without considering a dedicated high-end model.

Accepted Solution

All Replies

  • PeterUK
    PeterUK Posts: 3,939  Guru Member
    100 Answers 2500 Comments Friend Collector Seventh Anniversary
    edited August 7

    In short no.

    Also the Fritzbox 5590 2.5Gb port is WAN Edit so it can be set to LAN so your device will be by 1Gb ports so if your speed your ISP sets for you is 2Gb by Fiber any device will max out at 940Mb

  • Zyxel_Melen
    Zyxel_Melen Posts: 3,620  Zyxel Employee
    Zyxel Certified Network Engineer Level 1 - Switch Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Switch Zyxel Certified Network Administrator - Nebula Zyxel Certified Sales Associate
    Answer ✓

    Hi @Montland

    XMG1915 supports link aggregation (LACP/LAG), which has a load-sharing property, but not load-balancing. It will increase the bandwidth and allow each client to use a different link as much as possible for transmission, according to the criteria/algorithm.

    For more details, please reference this FAQ: Tutorial of Switch Link Aggregation (V4.80) — Zyxel Community

    Zyxel Melen


  • Montland
    Montland Posts: 14  Freshman Member
    First Comment

    Hello PeterUK,
    hello Melen,

    Thank you very much for your feedback. In fact, I already have an idea of how the whole setup could be implemented using a Zyxel switch.

    However, one point stood out to me during my considerations: Despite the impressive bandwidths that can be achieved with Zyxel devices in a home network, the real bottleneck currently lies with the internet service provider’s router. At present, it simply isn't capable of efficiently transferring the full fiber-optic bandwidth into the home network. As a result, we're still struggling with a limitation to 1 Gbit/s – hard to believe, considering the technology that is available.

    cu Richard

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