Chapter 4: Web management
NS3550-8T-2S Industrial Managed Switch User Manual
111
• The port identifier
STP communicates between switches on the network using Bridge Protocol Data Units
(BPDUs). Each BPDU contains the following information:
• The unique identifier of the switch that the transmitting switch currently believes is
the root switch.
• The path cost to the root from the transmitting port.
• The port identifier of the transmitting port.
The switch sends BPDUs to communicate and construct the spanning-tree topology. All
switches connected to the LAN on which the packet is transmitted will receive the
BPDU. BPDUs are not directly forwarded by the switch, but the receiving switch uses
the information in the frame to calculate a BPDU and, if the topology changes, initiates
a BPDU transmission.
The communication between switches via BPDUs results in the following:
• One switch is elected as the root switch.
• The shortest distance to the root switch is calculated for each switch.
• A designated switch is selected. This is the switch closest to the root switch through
which packets will be forwarded to the root.
• A port for each switch is selected. This is the port providing the best path from the
switch to the root switch.
• Ports included in the STP are selected.
Creating a stable STP topology
The goal is to make the root port the fastest link. If all switches have STP enabled with
default settings, the switch with the lowest MAC address in the network becomes the
root switch. By increasing the priority (lowering the priority number) of the best switch,
STP can be forced to select the best switch as the root switch.
When STP is enabled using the default parameters, the path between source and
destination stations in a switched network might not be ideal. For example, connecting
higher-speed links to a port that has a higher number than the current root port can
cause a root-port change.
STP port states
The BPDUs take some time to pass through a network. This propagation delay can
result in topology changes where a port that transitioned directly from a blocking state
to a forwarding state could create temporary data loops. Ports must wait for new
network topology information to propagate throughout the network before starting to
forward packets. They must also wait for the packet lifetime to expire for BPDU packets
that were forwarded based on the old topology. The forward delay timer is used to allow
the network topology to stabilize after a topology change. In addition, STP specifies a
series of states a port must transition through to further ensure that a stable network
topology is created after a topology change.
Each port on a switch using STP exists is in one of the following five states:
