What is Teaming?
A second generation Infinity endpoint (transmitter and receiver) has both a copper and SFP network port. Teaming is established when both network ports of a transmitter and receiver(s) in a channel can communicate directly or via a network switch.
Teaming was developed to tackle a couple of challenges for our customers. It serves two main purposes:-
Redundancy
Cable redundancy is simply having two connections (either of which can support the full connection traffic), protecting against either becoming damaged or disconnected.
Network redundancy is designing a system with dual networks (creating two separate network paths between endpoints (either network can fail without loss of connectivity) this resilience is often the demand of critical control room installations. (e.g. power stations).
Resilience
After demands came from the Post production industry, where some of their heaviest video streams could potentially exceed the 1Gbps capability of a single Infinity NIC (The highest peak we have seen is 1.3Gbps, but mathematically more is possible)
In these scenarios, to prevent the possibility of a frame being skipped, the video packets are load balanced across the two connections and sent sequentially to the receiver). If either connection fails for any reason, a post production editor will spot it.
In summary, teaming is designed to give assurance and resilience where the application demands it.