Multiple switches may be utilized to optimize for maximum throughput in a multiple network switch topology,[REF] when the switches are configured in parallel as part of an isolated network between two or more systems.
Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Mac OS X, OpenSolaris and commercial Unix distributions such as AIX implement Ethernet bonding (trunking) at a higher level, and can hence deal with NICs from different manufacturers or drivers, as long as the NIC is supported by the kernel [REF].