This is driving me crazy.

Is it absolutely necessary to have a switch that supports 802.3ad in order to use the 802.3ad option in the Linux Bonding Driver?

What I need to know is, would it be possible to have 2 NICs bonded(bond0) going directly to 2 other NICs bonded(bond1), without having a switch that supports 802.3ad in the picture? That would require 2 LAG channels, and 2 cables.

In such a case would the Linux Bonding Driver be able to push double bandwitdh from one logical LAG channel to the other?

I have been able to push greater than 1.8Gbit/s into 1 LAG channel constructed from 2 gigabit NICs. However I needed a switch that supported 802.3ad in order to do this.

When I try from 2 1gigabit NICs, to 2 other 1gigabit NICs, both of which are LAG channels directly connected, I can never surpass the 940Mbit/s barrier. Why??

Any info would be appreciated.
thanks,
dom