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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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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.

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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.

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).

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STP State (802.1d) RSTP State (802.1w)

Blocking

Discarding

Listening

Discarding

Learning

Learning

Forwarding

Forwarding

Disabled

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.
Note: RSTP is backward compatible with legacy STP 802.1D. If a RSTP enabled port receives a
(legacy) 802.1d BPDU, it will automatically configure itself to behave like a legacy port. It sends and
receives 802.1d BPDUs only.
Comments (86) Comments
Comment pages
Previous 1 2 623
1. KOWO
August 31st, 2012
Please help
Designated ports are selected based on the lowest path cost to the root bridge for a segment. Since
the root bridge will have a path cost of 0, any ports on it that are connected to segments will
become designated ports. For the other switches, the path cost is compared for a given segment. If
one port is determined to have a lower path cost, it becomes the designated port for that segment.
If two or more ports have the same path cost, then the switch with the lowest BID is chosen.
or
lowest root bridge id
lowest root path cost
lowest sender bridge id
lowest sender port id
2. KOWO
August 31st, 2012
So designated port are choose by lower Mac Adress or Path cost???
On scenario u choosed (designatet port SW2 (FA01) but CISCO says that
switches, the path cost is compared for a given segment. If one port is determined to have a lower

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path cost, it becomes the designated port for that segment. If two or more ports have the same path
cost, then the switch with the lowest BID is chosen.
So please help me with this
KOWO
3. Ben
October 24th, 2012
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.
Small fix but:
Shouldnt this be, Because fa0/2 is SUPERIOR to fa0/3, Sw2 will select fa0/2 as its Designated
Port
4. Asif
December 13th, 2012
Hi 9tut,
Thanks for your excellent updates !!!!
I have one doubt, Can you please confirm me whether root bridge is selected on basis of high
bridge priority or low bridge priority.
Once more thanks for your study materials!!!! :)
5. Mohan
December 26th, 2012
Root bridge is selected based on high bridge priority(lowest value)
6. Ozgun
December 28th, 2012
is there any config. command for this mode?
7. jrrivers
February 13th, 2013
FYI each interface on a bridge has a unique MAC address see section 7.12.2 of IEEE
802.1D-2004.
8. ALI
March 27th, 2013
hi KOWO cisco said right if you read the tutorial carefully again you will get you answer, 9tut say
the same meaning
9. oceandographer
April 29th, 2013

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This is an excellent article. This cleared up several questions that I had on this topic. This is the
kind of thing that needs to be included in the Cisco Network AcademyLan Switching & Wireless
portion. Thanks 9tut!
10. Rahul Singh
July 3rd, 2013
Thanks for your excellent updates
11. vikas
July 12th, 2013
Great explanation!!!
12. Sagar
July 15th, 2013
Very easy to understand the concepts!!! btw, the statement Because fa0/2 is inferior to fa0/3,
Sw2 will select fa0/2 as its Designated port, does it signifies that the number which is low
becomes the DP ????
13. India
August 7th, 2013
when we are choosing a root bridge, what do we check first? lower priority or lower mac address?
14. Juls
August 8th, 2013
@India
1st priority
15. Anonymous
September 6th, 2013
first check priority regardless mac addressee value only use mac address if Priority tie
16. piush
April 10th, 2014
wonderfully described
17. Ravindra
June 27th, 2014
awesome explanation
Grate help in learning

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18. dhanesh
September 2nd, 2014
Really he;pful
19. Zameerul Haque
September 19th, 2014
EK NUMBER
20. amandi
October 11th, 2014
awesome explanation !!!!!!!!!! best site I ever see!!!!!!!!once again thanks
21. Guru
October 30th, 2014
i love people taking part in this challenging blog
22. adeel
November 26th, 2014
in above case if sw 2 has lower cost path to bridge then port from sw 3 to sw 1 selected as
alternate
23. Mohamed
January 2nd, 2015
hi!!!!
if we connect one more link between sw2 to sw3(fa0/2 to fa0/2) what will be the status of sw3
port fa0/2? backup or alternate?if administrator put port as disable manually.what is the use of
that port?
24. yadav
January 11th, 2015
gr8 explaination
25. Awesome stuff.this is really helpful!!!!
February 3rd, 2015
Katrina
26. Maran
February 4th, 2015
which two states are the port states when RSTP has converged ?

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1. discarding
2. listening
3. learning
4. forwarding
5. disabled
please anyone explain ????
27. Ryan
February 20th, 2015
which two states are the port states when RSTP has converged ?
1. discarding
2. listening
3. learning
4. forwarding
5. disabled
please anyone explain ????
Maran,
Forwarding and Blocking are the two primary port states when RSTP has converged.
28. Anil
March 15th, 2015
Simple and straight forward explanation :)
29. rahul
March 18th, 2015
what is edge port and non-edge port in rstp ?
30. rahul
March 18th, 2015
in between two switch any possibility of edge port ?
31. matt
March 28th, 2015
@Ryan.
Not totally wrong. . but when RSTP has converged the states are forwarding and discarding.
Blocking is a term for ieee 802.1D common spanning tree and PVST. Blocking and discarding are
almost truly synonymous, however if looking from an exam perspective, blocking would be
considered a wrong answer. Also, if troubleshooting and only given partial show command that
does not state RSTP as the spanning-tree mode, alternate, discarding, and blocking ports are a
dead giveaway that you arent running 802.1D flavors of spanning tree.

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32. matt
March 28th, 2015
to the comment above: alternate, discarding, and *****backup***** ports are a dead giveaway
that you arent running 802.1D flavors of spanning tree.
33. Anonymous
May 20th, 2015
Simple and easy to understand explanation, good work, 9tut. Thanks!
34. Anonymous
August 19th, 2015
very quick, very concise. ty again!
35. tee
November 11th, 2015
If u need current ccna 200-120 dumps send me a mail Temitolawilliams@gmail.com
36. JackRabbit
November 17th, 2015
A nice little flash tutorial about STP, made by Cisco:
http://www.cisco.com/image/gif/paws/10556/spanning_tree1.swf
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