When I first had my hands on the Synology DS1511+ NAS (Network Access Storage), it is already one of the fastest enterprise class NAS out there to host my own blog portal. Added the fact that I have also subscribed to M1 Fibre Optics Broadband service, I should be able to maximise the downlink and uplink of the connection of my hosting NAS to the WWW. One of the useful feature of Synology DS1511+ is the link aggregation which is controlled by protocol 802.3ad.
Overview of 802.3ad
Essentially, link aggregation is part of the data link layer in OSI reference model.
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) provides a method to control the bundling of several physical ports together to form a single logical channel. LACP allows a network device to negotiate an automatic bundling of links by sending LACP packets to the peer.
In summary, Link Aggregation
• Does not change packet format
– No added headers or sequence numbers
– Type/Length interpretation unchanged
• Does not require added buffers
– No fragmentation or reassembly
• Does not re-order or mis-order packets
• Does not add significant latency
• Does not increase the bandwidth for a single
conversation
• Achieves high utilization only when carrying multiple
simultaneous conversations
• Is not transparent to some 802.1 sub-layers
Thereafter, I started my hunt to get a switch which supports Link Aggregation (802.3ad). Among the top brands e.g. CISCO and 3COM, the very basic enterprise ones are at least 24 ports which is an overkill for SOHO requirement. Finally, I managed to locate one Singapore local distributor for TP-Link and shipped in one set of TL-SG3109 (9 port managed Gigabit switch) which will do the desired magic at a very much lower price (50% lower).
9 ports inclusive of uplink port with a reasonable size though doubled of my existing 9 port consumer unmanaged Gigabit switch.
It has in-built power adaptor and thus setting up is a breeze with no major mess. The standard connection will be:
<CISCO Gigabit router> – <Gigabit managed switch TL-SG3109> – <Synology DS 1511+ NAS>
The technical specifications are:
Lastly, for SOHO setup, the TL-SG3109 switch also supports 802.1x authentication, which is used in conjunction with a RADIUS to require some authentication information before access to the network is allowed. In addition，Port Security, Storm Control support can protect against broadcast/multicast storms and ARP attacks, etc. TL-SG3109 will provide you robust security strategy to the network.
WIll wired up all required connections and share improvements in overall performance once done, do watch out for my subsequent posts!
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