ZyXEL Communications Dimension GS-3012, User Manual, Page: 99 / 259

GS-3012/GS-3012F User’s Guide
Spanning Tree Protocol 10-1
Chapter 10
Spanning Tree Protocol
This chapter introduces the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP).
10.1 STP/RSTP Overview
(R)STP detects and breaks network loops and provides backup links between switches, bridges or routers. It
allows a switch to interact with other (R)STP -compliant switches in your network to ensure that only one path
exists between any two stations on the network.
The switch uses IEEE 802.1w RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol) that allow faster convergence of the
spanning tree than STP (while also being backwards compatible with STP-only aware bridges). In RSTP,
topology change information is directly propagated throughout the network from the device that generates the
topology change. In STP, a longer delay is required as the device that causes a topology change first notifies the
root bridge that then notifies the network. Both RSTP and STP flush unwanted learned addresses from the
filtering database. In RSTP, the port states are Discarding, Learning, and Forwarding.
In this user’s guide, “STP” often refers to both STP and RSTP.
10.1.1 STP Terminology
The root bridge is the base of the spanning tree; it is the bridge with the lowest identifier value (MAC address).
Path cost is the cost of transmitting a frame onto a LAN through that port. It is assigned according to the speed of
the link to which a port is attached. The slower the media, the higher the cost - see the next table.
Table 10-1 STP Path Costs
LINK SPEED RECOMMENDED VALUE RECOMMENDED RANGE ALLOWED RANGE
Path Cost 4Mbps 250 100 to 1000 1 to 65535
Path Cost 10Mbps 100 50 to 600 1 to 65535
Path Cost 16Mbps 62 40 to 400 1 to 65535
Path Cost 100Mbps 19 10 to 60 1 to 65535
Path Cost 1Gbps 4 3 to 10 1 to 65535
Path Cost 10Gbps 2 1 to 5 1 to 65535
On each bridge, the root port is the port through which this bridge communicates with the root. It is the port on
this switch with the lowest path cost to the root (the root path cost). If there is no root port, then this switch has
been accepted as the root bridge of the spanning tree network.
For each LAN segment, a designated bridge is selected. This bridge has the lowest cost to the root among the
bridges connected to the LAN.