CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

June 5th, 2011 Go to comments Note: Before reading this article you should understand how STP works. So if you are not sure about STP, please read my article about Spanning Tree Protocol tutorial first. Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) One big disadvantage of STP is the low convergence which is very important in switched network. To overcome this problem, in 2001, the IEEE with document 802.1w introduced an evolution of the Spanning Tree Protocol: Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP), which significantly reduces the convergence time after a topology change occurs in the network. While STP can take 30 to 50 seconds to transit from a blocking state to a forwarding state, RSTP is typically able to respond less than 10 seconds of a physical link failure. RSTP works by adding an alternative port and a backup port compared to STP. These ports are allowed to immediately enter the forwarding state rather than passively wait for the network to converge. RSTP bridge port roles: * Root port A forwarding port that is the closest to the root bridge in terms of path cost * Designated port A forwarding port for every LAN segment * Alternate port A best alternate path to the root bridge. This path is different than using the root port. The alternative port moves to the forwarding state if there is a failure on the designated port for the segment. * Backup port A backup/redundant path to a segment where another bridge port already connects. The backup port applies only when a single switch has two links to the same segment (collision domain). To have two links to the same collision domain, the switch must be attached to a hub. * Disabled port Not strictly part of STP, a network administrator can manually disable a port Now lets see an example of three switches below:

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

http://www.9tut.com/rapid-spanning-tree-protocol-rstp-tutorial

Suppose all the switches have the same bridge priority so the switch with lowest MAC address will become root bridge -> Sw1 is the root bridge and therefore all of its ports will be Designated ports (forwarding). Two ports fa0/0 on Sw2 & Sw3 are closest to the root bridge (in terms of path cost) so they will become root ports. On the segment between Sw2 and Sw3, because Sw2 has lower MAC than Sw3 so it will advertise better BPDU on this segment -> fa0/1 of Sw2 will be Designated port and fa0/1 of Sw3 will be Alternative port.

Now for the two ports connecting to the hub, we know that there will have only one Designated port for each segment (notice that the two ports fa0/2 & fa0/3 of Sw2 are on the same segment as they are connected to a hub). The other port will be Backup port according to the definition of Backup port above. But how does Sw2 select its Designated and Backup port? The decision process involves the following parameters inside the BPDU: * Lowest path cost to the Root * Lowest Sender Bridge ID (BID) * Lowest Port ID Well, both fa0/2 & fa0/3 of Sw2 has the same path cost to the root and sender bridge ID so the third parameter lowest port ID will be used. Because fa0/2 is inferior to fa0/3, Sw2 will select fa0/2 as its Designated port.

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

http://www.9tut.com/rapid-spanning-tree-protocol-rstp-tutorial

Note: Alternative Port and Backup Port are in discarding state. RSTP Port States: There are only three port states left in RSTP that correspond to the three possible operational states. The 802.1D disabled, blocking, and listening states are merged into the 802.1w discarding state. * Discarding the port does not forward frames, process received frames, or learn MAC addresses but it does listen for BPDUs (like the STP blocking state) * Learning receives and transmits BPDUs and learns MAC addresses but does not yet forward frames (same as STP). * Forwarding receives and sends data, normal operation, learns MAC address, receives and transmits BPDUs (same as STP). STP State (802.1d) RSTP State (802.1w) Blocking Listening Learning Forwarding Disabled Discarding Discarding Learning Forwarding Discarding

Although the learning state is also used in RSTP but it only takes place for a short time as compared to STP. RSTP converges with all ports either in forwarding state or discarding state. RSTP Quick Summary: RSTP provides faster convergence than 802.1D STP when topology changes occur. * RSTP defines three port states: discarding, learning, and forwarding. * RSTP defines five port roles: root, designated, alternate, backup, and disabled.

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

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Comments (41) Comments 1. mission802 June 13th, 2011 Great explanation!!! 2. Omar June 14th, 2011 thanx alot i was really confusing by this topic 3. veny June 16th, 2011 thanks good 4. veny June 16th, 2011 its too confusing topic in hole ccna study 5. Vinay July 1st, 2011 Hi, Good presentation. I had confusion in Backup port and its essence in RSTP, now i am clear with it. Can you explain the Two way hand shake process that takes place in Point to point Ports when there is any link failure. I am asking this for the completeness of RSTP. If possible please include it in this tutorial. Great work. Thanks again. Regards, Vinay G 6. BlAcK_SuNdAy July 6th, 2011 @9tut referring to RSTP port states: it defines discarding, learning and forwarding states. (blocking and listening states in legacy STP are eliminated by discarding state in RSTP) 7. vinicius July 8th, 2011

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

http://www.9tut.com/rapid-spanning-tree-protocol-rstp-tutorial

Great Tutorial! Thx! 8. Deepak S July 9th, 2011 simplified. Thanks 9. abdul from nigeria July 18th, 2011 nice work u did wid RSTp tanx. 10. Amira July 26th, 2011 Thank you 9tut 11. Hab July 27th, 2011 Please the latest CCNA dumps. Thanks!! hyohannes@gmail.com 12. rupul July 27th, 2011 Thanks 9tut once again, you have made our listening, learning and forwarding states easier :-) 13. Pawadan July 28th, 2011 Please send the latest CCNA dumps. Thanks. cscoios@gmail.com 14. saran August 1st, 2011 nic explanation 15. Moloy September 5th, 2011 @9tut, What is the reconvergence time of rstp after link failure? Thanks in advance 16. 9tut September 5th, 2011 @Moloy: There is not a fixed time for RSTP convergence but typically it is less than 10 seconds.

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

http://www.9tut.com/rapid-spanning-tree-protocol-rstp-tutorial

17. Moloy September 6th, 2011 @9tut, Thanks. But how it will be less than 10 seconds because it will take 6 seconds for max-age time and 15 seconds for learning to forwarding mode. So, it will take at least 21 seconds. I am getting confused, please make me clear. 18. xallax September 6th, 2011 @Moloy Thats beyond the CCNA level. visit this link: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst2950/software/release/12.1_9_ea1/configuration /guide/swmstp.html#wp1039828 19. LA_MEL September 11th, 2011 Alternate port A best alternate path to the root bridge. This path is different than using the root port. The alternative port moves to the forwarding state if there is a failure on the designated port for the segment. The alternate port will become forwarding if there is a failure in the root port (not designated port) 20. ahmed September 16th, 2011 nice presentation 21. nc September 21st, 2011 Great article ! Thank you In the quick summary second statement, is it a typo ? discarding, listening and forwarding, should listening be Learning ? 22. 9tut September 22nd, 2011 @nc: Yes, thank for your detection. I updated it! 23. Sajan September 25th, 2011 Excellent explanation. 24. Simba September 26th, 2011 Tahnk you for making learning so easy,i really appreciate 25. Rangga

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

http://www.9tut.com/rapid-spanning-tree-protocol-rstp-tutorial

October 3rd, 2011 great tutorial. good man 26. GRATEFUL November 4th, 2011 @9TUT YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!This is the best tutorial that i have come across. it covers all that you need to know in a simplified and understandable manner. THANKS! 27. joy November 25th, 2011 now i understand.thanks a lot 9tut 28. Muhsin December 11th, 2011 You are great, 9tut administrator. 29. Nilesh December 17th, 2011 Simple & easy. Thanx 30. herun December 19th, 2011 Thank you very much 9tut great explanation.. 31. shreeram January 18th, 2012 great presentationi was really confused with this alt and backup port concept..thanks a lot.. 32. yogesh kumar January 25th, 2012 nice and clear explanation :-) 33. Drei February 8th, 2012 crystal clear. You should write a cisco book! 34. Viji February 9th, 2012 Excellent explanation. Thanks a lot. 35. slipkorn

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

http://www.9tut.com/rapid-spanning-tree-protocol-rstp-tutorial

February 22nd, 2012 good tutorial.easy to understand.now i understand about RSTP.thanks 9tut.. 36. Anonymous March 27th, 2012 Guys, I have a question about RPVST. When we elect Alternative port on switches what should we do? 1) The port of switch become AP if this switch has a bigger past cost to root switch versus the switch which has lower pat cost to root bridge? Is it right? 2) If the costs to root bridge are same we should compare MAC of the switches. If one of two switches has lower MAC than second switch, its port become DP and port of second switch become AP? Is it right? Thanks 37. jitu April 19th, 2012 awesome presentation 38. Anonymous April 22nd, 2012 Thank you it is very easy to understand .appriciateble the way of explain and scenario 39. manish kevre May 2nd, 2012 should have explained a link failure case .,.,or a new link added case 40. kurt May 18th, 2012 I had to read this (RSTP) a few times to understand it. Thanks 9tut for this site, is very helpful. 41. Wadzi May 22nd, 2012 Thank you.Well Explained Add a Comment Name

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CCNA Training Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol RSTP Tutorial

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