Switches - a new question (increasing bandwidth to router)

[CerisCinderwolf]

Hey guys, I have a question about connecting a switch to a pre-existing router (or technically, any router).
Firstly, I'm looking at getting the Rosewill RGS-1024 (24-port unmanaged gigabye switch). Each port allows access up-to a single gigabyte.

When connecting to a router, the bandwidth to/from the router is limited to the 10/100/1000 port on the router/switch. If I have 22 gaming devices connected to the switch, **is it possible to connect two (or more) ports on the router to the switch to increase over-all throughput to the router?**

 

[Urumiko]

erm. well.. there wouldn't be any point unless your internet connection is faster than a gig which i doubt? You can team ports on switches together to create 1-8gig links using "etherchannel" or "portchannel" or "link aggregation" .. the generic standard is 802.3ad but you are unlikely to have this on a router. just a switch. you may find auto negotiate 802.3ad on an unmanaged switch but its unlikely.

 

[CerisCinderwolf]

erm. well.. there wouldn't be any point unless your internet connection is faster than a gig which i doubt? You can team ports on switches together to create 1-8gig links using "etherchannel" or "portchannel" or "link aggregation" .. the generic standard is 802.3ad but you are unlikely to have this on a router. just a switch. you may find auto negotiate 802.3ad on an unmanaged switch but its unlikely.

This isn't for internet access, but local network access only. It would more-so be used to link connections between multiple networks through the same router to other switches.
For example, say I have 22 people on the same switch accessing information on another switch - also connected to the same router). That's up to 22gb/s (theoretical) of incoming/outgoing bandwidth funneled into a single port on the router (which - max - is 1gb/s).
If I ran two switch ports to two router ports, would that increase throughput up to 2gb/s for anything on the switches connected that way?

 

[bill001g]

I agree with lidellpe your equipment likely does not support this because it is a unmanaged switch. The feature you need both on the router and the switch is generally call link aggregation but the feature to look for is 802.3ad. It uses LACP to negotiate this between devices but there are a number of options that can be set so it would be unlikely to ever work on any unmanaged type of device.

I suspect even a larger issue is going to be your router. It gets very difficult to pass that amount of data though a router. Normally this type of high speed processing is done with a layer3 switch. Mostly the difference between a router and a layer3 switch is a router can do function that delay packets where a layer switch does not have those abilities. Traffic shaping and NAT are 2 examples. A true router that could pass 2 gig of data will be extremely expensive. But a there are many layer 3 switches that can easily pass 2 gig or more of data for a couple thousand dollars.

 

[MartinWilson]

I doubt gaming traffic is going to accumulate to much, even with 22 players (1000Mbps divided by 22 players is 45Mbps - with packet overhead this will maybe drop to maybe 34Mbps per user available on full utilization conditions - which I still think would be enough in this very unlikely situation).

When you say 'separate networks', are they actually on different subnets?

If so, you are either going to have to do some re-design and re-patching, or you are going to need a layer 3 switch to router between the networks. This could get expensive.

If not, then just plug all the games players/servers into the Rosewill switch and you should be good. Your router would not have to do anything, as all the traffic will be local to the switch.

 

[Urumiko]

I'd get one of these. Its a layer 3 switch so can do any routing etc too. you'd have to learn how to configure it though, and it is a bit overkill. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cisco-WS-C3750-48TS-S-V05-Catalyst-3750-Managed-48-Port-Network-Switch-/281243123604?pt=US_Network_Switches&hash=item417b657f94

I agree with martin. I'm not sure why there are different networks? a bigger switch or chaining 2 switches together is the simplest solution, there seems no need for a router.