Method and apparatus for trunking links having different transmission rates

A network device that controls the communication of data frames between stations includes ports that receive data frames from the stations and transmit the data frames. A number of the ports may be configured as a trunk and at least one of the ports in the trunk may be configured to transmit data frames at a higher speed than the other ports. The network device further includes data frame processing logic that identifies ports on which to transmit the received data frames. The data frame processing logic also determines whether the identified port is part of the trunk. When the port is part of the trunk, the data frame processing logic determines an appropriate port on which to transmit the data frame. The data frame processing logic may determine the appropriate port based on the priority associated with the received data frame so that higher priority data frames are transmitted on higher speed ports.