STP Principles

and Configuration
 Contents

1 STP Overview

2 Basic Concepts and Working Mechanism of STP

3 Basic STP Configurations

4 Improvements Made in RSTP

5 STP Advancement

Page 3 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Technical Background:
Redundancy and Loops on a Layer 2 Switching Network
A network without redundancy design Layer 2 loops introduced along with redundancy

There is only one aggregation switch,

and no redundancy is available. If a
Aggregation
fault occurs, the downstream host will
switch be disconnected. Aggregation Aggregation
Layer 2
switch switch
The access switch has only one uplink, loop
and no redundancy is available. If a
fault occurs, the downstream PC will
Access switch be disconnected. Access switch
The network redundancy
is enhanced, but a Layer
2 loop occurs.

Page 4 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Technical Background:
Layer 2 Loops Caused by Human Errors

Case 1 Case 2

Layer 2 SW1
loop

Layer 2
loop

SW2

Incorrect manual configurations: For example, the network

Incorrect operations: For example, connections of
administrator does not bind the link between SW1 and SW2
cables between devices are incorrect. to a logical link (aggregation link), causing Layer 2 loops.

Page 5 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Issues Caused by Layer 2 Loops

Typical Issue 1: Broadcast Storm Typical Issue 2: MAC Address Flapping

3 GE0/0/2
SW1 SW2 SW1 SW2
3
4 4

2 2

SW3 SW3

BUM frame BUM frame

1 1 Source MAC address:
5489-98EE-788A

Page 6 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Introduction to STP

STP STP

SW1 SW2 SW1

SW2
(Root)

Port SW3
BPDUs blocked
SW3
STP

When STP is deployed on a network, switches exchange STP BPDUs and calculate a loop-free topology. Finally,
one or more ports on the network are blocked to eliminate loops.

Page 7 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Can Dynamically Respond to Network Topology Changes
and Adjust Blocked Ports

SW1 SW2 SW1 SW2

2
链路故障
1 3
Blocked Restored
port port
SW3 SW3

STP running on a switch continuously monitors the network topology. When the network topology changes,
STP can detect the changes and automatically adjust the network topology.
Therefore, STP can solve the Layer 2 loop problem and provide a solution for network redundancy.

Page 8 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Q&A: Layer 2 and Layer 3 loops
Layer 3 loop Layer 2 loop

• Common root cause: Layer 2 redundancy is deployed

• Common root cause: routing loop on the network, or cables are incorrectly connected.
• Dynamic routing protocols have certain loop • Specific protocols or mechanisms are required to
prevention capabilities. implement Layer 2 loop prevention.
• The TTL field in the IP packet header can be used • The Layer 2 frame header does not contain any
information to prevent data frames from being
to prevent infinite packet forwarding.
forwarded infinitely.

Page 9 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Application of STP on a Campus Network

Internet

Layer 3 network

Layer 2 network
Running environment of STP
…… …… ……

Page 10 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Overview

• STP is used on a LAN to prevent loops.

• Devices running STP exchange information with one another to discover loops on the
network, and block certain ports to eliminate loops.

• After running on a network, STP continuously monitors the network status. When the
network topology changes, STP can detect the change and automatically respond to the
change. In this way, the network status can adapt to the new topology, ensuring network
reliability.

Page 11 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents

1 STP Overview

2 Basic Concepts and Working Mechanism of STP

• STP Basic Concepts
• STP Calculation
• Topology Change

3 Basic STP Configurations

4 Improvements Made in RSTP

5 STP Advancement

Page 12 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Basic Concepts: BID
路由器
4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b
SW1 SW2 Bridge ID (BID)
• As defined in IEEE 802.1D, a BID consists of a 16-bit
bridge priority and a bridge MAC address.
• Each switch running STP has a unique BID.
• The bridge priority occupies the leftmost 16 bits and the
MAC address occupies the rightmost 48 bits.
• On an STP network, the device with the smallest BID acts
SW3 as the root bridge.
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c
Note: A bridge is a switch.

Bridge priority Bridge MAC address

Page 13 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Basic Concepts: Root Bridge

Root Bridge
• One of the main functions of STP is to calculate a loop-free STP
4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b
tree on the entire switching network.
SW1 SW2 • The root bridge is the root of an STP network.
• After STP starts to work, it elects a root bridge on the switching
Root bridge
network. The root bridge is the key for topology calculation of
the spanning tree and is the root of the loop-free topology
calculated by STP.
• On an STP network, the device with the smallest BID acts as the
root bridge.
During BID comparison, devices first compare bridge priorities. A
SW3 smaller priority value indicates a higher priority of a device. The
switch with the smallest priority value becomes the root bridge.
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c
If priority values are the same, the switch with the smallest MAC
address becomes the root bridge.

Page 14 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Basic Concepts: Cost

Cost=500 Cost
SW1 SW2
Cost=500
Cost=20000 Cost=20000 • Each STP-enabled port maintains a cost. The cost of a
port is used to calculate the root path cost (RPC), that is,
the cost of the path to the root.
• The default cost of a port is related to the rate, working
mode, and STP cost calculation method used by a switch.
Cost=20000 Cost=20000 • A higher port bandwidth indicates a smaller cost.
• You can also run commands to adjust the cost of a port
SW3 as required.

Page 15 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Basic Concepts: Cost Calculation Methods

Recommended STP Cost

Port Rate Port Mode
IEEE 802.1d-1998 IEEE 802.1t Huawei Legacy Standard
Half-duplex 19 200,000 200
100 Mbit/s Full-duplex 18 199,999 199
Aggregated link: two ports 15 100,000 180
Full-duplex 4 20,000 20
1000 Mbit/s
Aggregated link: two ports 3 10,000 18
Full-duplex 2 2000 2
10 Gbit/s
Aggregated link: two ports 1 1000 1
Full-duplex 1 500 1
40 Gbit/s
Aggregated link: two ports 1 250 1
Full-duplex 1 200 1
100 Gbit/s
Aggregated link: two ports 1 100 1
...

Page 16 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Basic Concepts: RPC

RPC=500+20000

Root bridge
Cost=500 Cost=500 RPC
SW1 1 SW2
Cost=20000 • The RPC from a port to the root bridge is the sum of
Cost=20000
costs of all inbound ports along the path from the root
bridge to the device.

Cost=20000 2 Cost=20000

SW3

Page 17 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Basic Concepts: PID

PID=128.24 PID=128.24
SW1 SW2 Port ID (PID)
PID=128.23 PID=128.23 • A PID consists of the leftmost four bits (port priority)
and the rightmost 12 bits (port number).

• An STP-enabled port maintains a default port priority,

which is 128 on Huawei switches. You can run a
PID=128.21 PID=128.22 command to change the priority as required.

SW3

Page 18 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Basic Concepts: BPDU

Bridge Protocol Data Unit (BPDU)

SW1 SW2
• BPDU is the basis for STP to work normally.
• STP-enabled switches exchange BPDUs that carry
important information.
• There are two types of BPDUs:
➢ Configuration BPDU
➢ Topology Change Notification (TCN) BPDU
SW3 • Configuration BPDUs are the key to STP topology
Configuration BPDU calculation. TCN BPDUs are triggered only when the
network topology changes.

Page 19 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Format of Configuration BPDUs
BPDU Message Hello Forward
PID PVI Flags Root ID RPC Bridge ID Port ID Max Age
Type Age Time Delay

Byte Field Description

2 PID For STP, the value of this field is always 0.
1 PVI For STP, the value of this field is always 0.
1 BPDU Type Type of BPDUs. The value 0x00 indicates a configuration BPDU and the value 0x80 indicates a TCN BPDU.
STP uses only the leftmost two bits and the rightmost two bits: Topology Change Acknowledgment (TCA)
1 Flags
and Topology Change (TC).
8 Root D BID of the root bridge.
4 RPC STP cost of the path from the current port to the root bridge.
8 Bridge ID BID of the sender.
2 Port ID ID of the port that sends this BPDU, which consists of the port priority and port number.
Number of seconds after a BPDU is sent from the root bridge. The value increases by 1 each time the BPDU
2 Message Age
passes through a network bridge. It refers to the number of hops to the root bridge.
If the bridge does not receive any BPDU for a period of time and the lifetime of the network bridge reaches
2 Max Age the maximum, the network bridge considers that the link connected to the port is faulty.
The default value is 20s.
2 Hello Time Interval at which the root bridge sends configuration BPDUs. The default value is 2s.
2 Forward Delay Time that is spent in Listening or Learning state. The default value is 15s.
Page 20 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 BPDU Comparison Rules
Field The core of STP is to calculate a loop-free topology on a switching network. During
Protocol Identifier topology calculation, the comparison of configuration BPDUs is important. The Root
Protocol Version Identifier
Identifier, Root Path Cost, Bridge Identifier, and Port Identifier fields are the main fields
of a configuration BPDU. STP-enabled switches compare the four fields.
BPDU Type
Flags STP selects the optimal configuration BPDU in the following sequence:
Root Identifier 1. Smallest BID of the root bridge
Root Path Cost 2. Smallest RPC
Bridge Identifier 3. Smallest BID of the network bridge
Port Identifier
4. Smallest PID
Message Age
Max Age Among the four rules (each rule corresponds to a field in a configuration BPDU), the
Hello Time first rule is used to elect the root bridge on the network, and the following rules are
Forward Delay used to elect the root port and designated port.

Page 21 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Configuration BPDU Forwarding Process

4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b 4096.4c1f-aabc-102c

SW1 SW2 SW3
PortID=128.24 PortID=128.23
Cost=20000 Cost=20000

Configuration BPDU Configuration BPDU

... ……
BID of the root bridge = 4096.4c1f-aabc-102a BID of the root bridge = 4096.4c1f-aabc-102a
Path cost = 0 Path cost = 0+20000
BID of the network bridge = 4096.4c1f-aabc-
BID of the network bridge = 4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 102b
PID = 128.24 PID = 128.23
... ...

Page 22 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents

1 STP Overview

2 Basic Concepts and Working Mechanism of STP

• STP Basic Concepts
• STP Calculation
• Topology Change

3 Basic STP Configurations

4 Improvements Made in RSTP

5 STP Advancement

Page 23 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Calculation (1)

4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b Select a Root Bridge on the Switching Network

SW1 SW2 • After STP starts to work on a switching network, each

switch sends configuration BPDUs to the network. The
Root bridge configuration BPDU contains the BID of a switch.
• The switch with the smallest bridge ID becomes the root
bridge.
• Only one root bridge exists on a contiguous STP
switching network.
• The role of the root bridge can be preempted.
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c
• To ensure the stability of the switching network, you are
SW3 advised to plan the STP network in advance and set the
Configuration bridge priority of the switch that is planned as the root
BPDU bridge to the minimum value 0.

Page 24 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Calculation (2)

4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b
Select a Root Port on Each Non-root Bridge
SW1 R SW2
• Each non-root bridge selects a root port from its ports.

• A non-root bridge has only one root port.

• When a non-root-bridge switch has multiple ports

connected to the network, the root port receives the
optimal configuration BPDU.
R
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c • The root port is located on each non-root bridge and has
SW3 the shortest distance away from the root bridge.

Configuration
R Root port
BPDU

Page 25 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Calculation (3)

4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b
A designated port is elected on each link.
SW1 D R SW2
D D • After the root port is elected, the non-root bridge uses
the optimal BPDU received on the port to calculate the
configuration BPDU and compares the calculated
configuration BPDU with the configuration BPDUs
received by all ports except the root port.
➢ If the former is better, the port is a designated port.
R
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c ➢ If the latter is better, the port is not a designated port.
SW3 • In most cases, all ports on the root bridge are designated
ports.
Configuration R Root port D Designated
BPDU port

Page 27 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Calculation (4)

SW1 D R SW2 Block Non-designated Port

D D
• On a switch, a port that is neither a root port nor a
designated port is called a non-designated port.

• The last step of STP operations is to block the non-

designated port on the network. After this step is
R Blocked port complete, the Layer 2 loop on the network is eliminated.

SW3

Configuration R Root port D Designated

BPDU port

Page 28 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Port States
Port State Description

The port cannot send or receive BPDUs or service data frames. That is, the port is
Disabled
Down.
The port is blocked by STP. A blocked port cannot send BPDUs but listens to BPDUs.
Blocking In addition, the blocked port cannot send or receive service data frames or learn
MAC addresses.

STP considers the port in Listening state as the root port or designated port, but the
Listening port is still in the STP calculation process. In this case, the port can send and receive
BPDUs but cannot send or receive service data frames or learn MAC addresses.

A port in Learning state listens to service data frames but cannot forward them.
Learning
After receiving service data frames, the port learns MAC addresses.

A port in Forwarding state can send and receive service data frames and process
Forwarding
BPDUs. Only the root port or designated port can enter the Forwarding state.

Page 32 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 STP Port State Transition

Disabled or Down

1 1
When a port is initialized or activated, it automatically
5 enters the blocking state.
Blocking
5 2 The port is elected as the root port or designated port
2 and automatically enters the Listening state.
4 Listening
5 3 The Forward Delay timer expires and the port is still
3 the root port or designated port.

4 Learning 4 The port is no longer the root port or designated port.

5
3

4 Forwarding 5 The port is disabled or the link fails.

Page 33 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents

1 STP Overview

2 Basic Concepts and Working Mechanism of STP

• STP Basic Concepts
• STP Calculation
• Topology Change

3 Basic STP Configurations

4 Improvements Made in RSTP

5 STP Advancement

Page 34 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Topology Change: Root Bridge Fault

Root Bridge Fault Rectification Process

4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b

SW1 2 1. SW1 (root bridge) is faulty and stops sending BPDUs.

SW2
1 2. SW2 waits for the Max Age timer (20s) to expire. In this case,
the record about the received BPDUs becomes invalid, and SW2
cannot receive new BPDUs from the root bridge. SW2 learns
3 that the upstream device is faulty.
3. Non-root bridges send configuration BPDUs to each other to
elect a new root bridge.
4. After re-election, port A of SW3 transitions to the Forwarding
A state after two intervals of the Forward Delay timer (the default
4 interval is 15s).
SW3 • A non-root bridge starts root bridge re-election after BPDUs
age.
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c • Due to the root bridge failure, it takes about 50s to recover
from a root bridge failure.

Page 35 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Topology Change: Direct Link Fault

4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b
Direct Link Fault Rectification Process
SW1 SW2
A
On a stable network, when SW2 detects that the link of
the root port is faulty, the alternate port of SW2 enters the
Forwarding state after twice the value of the Forward
Delay timer (the default value is 15s).
• After SW2 detects a fault on the direct link, it switches
A the alternate port to the root port.
• If a direct link fails, the alternate port restores to the
SW3 Forwarding state after 30s.
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c

Page 36 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Topology Change: Indirect Link Fault
• When the indirect link fails, the alternate port on SW3 restores to the Forwarding
state. It takes about 50s to recover from an indirect link failure.

4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b 4096.4c1f-aabc-102a 4096.4c1f-aabc-102b

SW1 SW2 SW1 SW2
D D

A R

SW3 SW3
4096.4c1f-aabc-102c 4096.4c1f-aabc-102c
Page 37 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 The MAC Address Table Is Incorrect Because the Topology Changes
SW1
MAC address table

GE0/0/1 GE0/0/2
MAC Port

00-05-06-07-08-AA GE0/0/1

00-05-06-07-08-BB GE0/0/3

As shown in the figure, the root port of SW3 GE0/0/3 GE0/0/1

is faulty, causing the spanning tree topology SW2 A SW3
to re-converge. After the spanning tree GE0/0/2 GE0/0/2
topology re-converges, Host B cannot receive
GE0/0/1 GE0/0/3
frames sent by Host A. This is because
switches forward data frames based on the
MAC address table. By default, the aging
time of MAC address entries is 300s. How is Host A Host B
forwarding restored rapidly?
00-05-06-07-08-AA 00-05-06-07-08-BB

Page 38 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 The MAC Address Table Is Incorrect Because the Topology Changes
SW1
MAC address table

MAC Port GE0/0/1 GE0/0/2

00-05-06-07-08-AA GE0/0/3

00-05-06-07-08-BB GE0/0/1

00-05-06-07-08-BB GE0/0/2
1 .TCN
GE0/0/3 GE0/0/1
SW2 A SW3
• TCN BPDUs are generated when the network GE0/0/2 GE0/0/2
topology changes. 2 .TCA
GE0/0/1 GE0/0/3
• Packet format: protocol identifier, version 5 .TC
number, and type
• Topology change: The TCA and TC bits in the Host A Host B
Flags field of configuration BPDUs are used. 00-05-06-07-08-AA 00-05-06-07-08-BB

Page 39 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents

1 STP Overview

2 Basic Concepts and Working Mechanism of STP

3 Basic STP Configurations

4 Improvements Made in RSTP

5 STP Advancement

Page 40 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Basic STP Configuration Commands (1)
1. Configure a working mode.

[Huawei] stp mode { stp | rstp | mstp }

The switch supports three working modes: STP, RSTP, and Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP). By default,
a switch works in MSTP mode.
2. (Optional) Configure the root bridge.

[Huawei] stp root primary

Configure the switch as the root bridge. By default, a switch does not function as the root bridge of any
spanning tree. After you run this command, the priority value of the switch is set to 0 and cannot be changed.

3. (Optional) Configure the switch as the secondary root bridge.

[Huawei] stp root secondary

Configure the switch as the secondary root bridge. By default, a switch does not function as the secondary root bridge of any
spanning tree. After you run this command, the priority value of the switch is set to 4096 and cannot be changed.

Page 41 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Basic STP Configuration Commands (2)
1. (Optional) Configure the STP priority of a switch.

[Huawei] stp priority priority

By default, the priority value of a switch is 32768.

2. (Optional) Configure a path cost for a port.

[Huawei] stp pathcost-standard { dot1d-1998 | dot1t | legacy }

Configure a path cost calculation method. By default, the IEEE 802.1t standard (dot1t) is used to calculate path costs.
All switches on a network must use the same path cost calculation method.

[Huawei-GigabitEthernet0/0/1] stp cost cost

Set the path cost of the port.

Page 42 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Basic STP Configuration Commands (3)

1. (Optional) Configure a priority for a port.

[Huawei-intf] stp priority priority

Configure a priority for a port. By default, the priority of a switch port is 128.

2. Enable STP, RSTP, or MSTP.

[Huawei] stp enable

Enable STP, RSTP, or MSTP on a switch. By default, STP, RSTP, or MSTP is enabled on a switch.

Page 43 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Case 1: Basic STP Configurations
SW1 configuration:
GE0/0/24 GE0/0/24
SW1 SW2
[SW1] stp mode stp
[SW1] stp enable
[SW1] stp priority 0

SW2 configuration:

[SW2] stp mode stp

SW3 [SW2] stp enable
[SW2] stp priority 4096

• Deploy STP on the three switches to eliminate Layer 2 loops SW3 configuration:
on the network.
[SW3] stp mode stp
• Configure SW1 as the root bridge and block GE0/0/22 on SW3.
[SW3] stp enable

Page 44 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Case 1: Basic STP Configurations

Check brief information about STP states of ports on SW3.

<SW3> display stp brief

MSTID Port Role STP State Protection
0 GigabitEthernet0/0/21 ROOT FORWARDING NONE
0 GigabitEthernet0/0/22 ALTE DISCARDING NONE

Page 45 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents

1 STP Overview

2 Basic Concepts and Working Mechanism of STP

3 Basic STP Configurations

4 Improvements Made in RSTP

5 STP Advancement

Page 46 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Disadvantages of STP
• STP ensures a loop-free network but is slow to converge, leading to service quality deterioration. If the network
topology changes frequently, connections on the STP network are frequently torn down, causing frequent service
interruption.
• STP does not differentiate between port roles according to their states, making it difficult for less experienced
administrators to learn about and deploy this protocol.
▫ Ports in Listening, Learning, and Blocking states are the same for users because none of these ports forwards service traffic.
▫ In terms of port use and configuration, the essential differences between ports lie in the port roles but not port states.
▫ Both root and designated ports can be in Listening state or Forwarding state, so the port roles cannot be differentiated
according to their states.

• The STP algorithm does not determine topology changes until the timer expires, delaying network convergence.
• The STP algorithm requires the root bridge to send configuration BPDUs after the network topology becomes
stable, and other devices process and spread the configuration BPDUs through the entire network. This also delays
convergence.

Page 47 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 RSTP Overview

• RSTP defined in IEEE 802.1w is an enhancement to STP. RSTP optimizes STP in many aspects,
provides faster convergence, and is compatible with STP.

• RSTP introduces new port roles. When the root port fails, the switch can enable the
alternate port to obtain an alternate path from the designated bridge to the root bridge.
RSTP defines three states for a port based on whether the port forwards user traffic and
learns MAC addresses. In addition, RSTP introduces the edge port. The port connecting a
switch to a terminal is configured as an edge port that enters the Forwarding state
immediately after initialization, thus improving the working efficiency.

Page 48 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Improvements Made in RSTP

• RSTP processes configuration BPDUs differently from STP.

▫ When the topology becomes stable, the mode of sending configuration BPDUs is
optimized.
▫ RSTP uses a shorter timeout interval of BPDUs.
▫ RSTP optimizes the method of processing inferior BPDUs.

• RSTP changes the configuration BPDU format and uses the Flags field to describe
port roles.

• RSTP topology change processing: Compared with STP, RSTP is optimized to

accelerate the response to topology changes.

Page 49 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Port Roles in RSTP
• RSTP adds port roles to help understand RSTP and simplify RSTP deployment.

SW1 (root bridge) SW1 (root bridge)

D D D D

R R R R
SW2 SW3 SW2 SW3
D A D B A

R Root port D Designated A Alternate B Backup port

port port
RSTP defines four port roles: root port, designated port, alternate port, and backup port.

Page 50 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Edge Port
• An edge port is located at the edge of a region and does not connect to any switching device.

SW1 (root bridge)

D D

R R E
SW2
SW3

R Root port D Designated E Edge port

port

Generally, an edge port is directly connected to a user terminal. The edge port can transition from the Disabled
state to the Forwarding state.

Page 51 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Port States in RSTP
• RSTP deletes two port states defined in STP, reducing the number of port states to three.

STP Port State RSTP Port State Port Role

Forwarding Forwarding Root port or designated port

Learning Learning Root port or designated port

Listening Discarding Root port or designated port

Blocking Discarding Alternate port or backup port

Disabled Discarding Disabled port

Page 52 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Contents

1 STP Overview

2 Basic Concepts and Working Mechanism of STP

3 Basic STP Configurations

4 Improvements Made in RSTP

5 STP Advancement

Page 53 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Defects of STP/RSTP: All VLANs Share One Spanning Tree

SW1 SW2

GE0/0/2 of SW3 is blocked by STP.

As a result, traffic of all VLANs is
forwarded through the left link, and
GE0/0/2 the link connected to the blocked
interface does not carry traffic,
SW3
wasting link bandwidth resources.
Data from all VLANs

Blocked port

VLAN1、2、3、…

Page 54 Copyright © 2020 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
 VBST

SW1 SW2

Spanning tree Spanning tree Spanning tree

of VLAN 1 of VLAN 2 of VLAN 3
Root Root Root

Data in an even-numbered VLAN

Independent spanning trees are formed for different
SW3
Data in an odd-numbered VLAN VLANs.

Blocked port in an even-numbered VLAN

Blocked port in an odd-numbered VLAN

VLAN1、2、3、…

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 MSTP

SW1 SW2

Spanning tree Spanning tree

of MSTI 1 of MSTI 2
Root Root

• MSTP maps VLANs to an MSTI. Multiple VLANs can share one

Data in an even-numbered VLAN
SW3 spanning tree. For example:
Data in an odd-numbered VLAN
• Even-numbered VLANs are mapped to MSTI 1.
Blocked port in MSTI 1 • Odd-numbered VLANs are mapped to MSTI 2.
• Only two spanning trees are maintained on the network.
Blocked port in MSTI 2
VLAN1、2、3、…

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 MSTP Overview
• MSTP divides a switching network into multiple regions, each of which has multiple spanning
trees that are independent of each other.

• Each spanning tree is called a multiple spanning tree instance (MSTI).

• An MSTI is the spanning tree corresponding to a set of VLANs.

• Binding multiple VLANs to a single MSTI reduces communication costs and resource usage.

• The topology of each MSTI is calculated independently, and traffic can be balanced among
MSTIs.

• Multiple VLANs with the same topology can be mapped to a single MSTI. The forwarding state
of the VLANs for an interface is determined by the interface state in the MSTI.

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 Stack and Tree Networking of Campus Networks
Traditional STP Networking iStack Networking

iStack Aggregation switches

form an iStack system
Aggregation Aggregation (logical standalone
switch 1 switch 2 device).

Access switch Access switch Access switch Access switch

STP blocks ports on the network, causing a failure to Aggregation switches are stacked to form a single logical
device, simplifying the network topology. In addition, link
fully utilize link bandwidth. aggregation is deployed between aggregation switches
and access switches to simplify the network topology to a
tree topology, eliminating Layer 2 loops and improving
link bandwidth utilization.

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 Smart Link
FW1 FW2 ⚫ Smart Link is tailored for dual-uplink networking.
⚫ Smart Link is deployed on two switches where a host is
dual-homed. When the network is normal, one of the two
uplinks is active, and the other is in standby state (does
SW1 SW2
NO STP not carry service traffic). In this way, a Layer 2 loop is
eliminated.
⚫ When the active link is faulty, traffic is switched to the
Port1 Port2
Master Port Slave Port standby link in milliseconds. This ensures proper data
forwarding.
SW3
⚫ Smart Link is easy to configure.
⚫ Smart Link does not involve protocol packet exchange,
therefore greatly improving speed and reliability.
Smart Link Group Active Status

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 Summary
• STP prevents loops on a LAN. Devices running STP exchange information with one another to
discover loops on the network, and block certain ports to eliminate loops. With the growth in scale
of LANs, STP has become an important protocol for a LAN.

• After STP is configured on an Ethernet switching network, the protocol calculates the network
topology to implement the following functions:

• Loop prevention: The spanning tree protocol blocks redundant links to prevent potential loops on the
network.

• Link redundancy: If an active link fails and a redundant link exists, the spanning tree protocol
activates the redundant link to ensure network connectivity.

• STP cannot meet requirements of modern campus networks. However, understanding the working
mechanism of STP helps you better understand the working mechanism and deployment of RSTP
and MSTP.

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