What is EtherChannel also referred to as?

EtherChannel is commonly referred to as "Port Channeling." This technology enables the bundling of multiple physical Ethernet links between two switches into a single logical link. This approach not only increases the bandwidth available for communication but also provides redundancy; if one of the physical links fails, the traffic can still pass over the remaining links in the channel.

The term "Port Channel" is used in Cisco's terminology, indicating that the technology effectively creates a channel that can aggregate multiple ports on a switch, enhancing both performance and reliability of network connections. This is particularly useful in environments that require high availability and load balancing.

While "Switch Link Aggregation" and "Switch Port Aggregation" are closely related concepts, they are not the terms most widely recognized in conjunction with EtherChannel in Cisco documentation and training. The "Trunking Protocol" refers to a different concept related to VLAN tagging and does not encapsulate the functionality of EtherChannel. Thus, "Port Channeling" is the most accurate and commonly used term associated with EtherChannel.