Chapter 2: Spanning Tree

CCNP Enterprise: Core Networking

Chapter 2 Content

This chapter covers the following content:

• Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals - This section provides an overview of

how switches become aware of other switches and prevent forwarding loops.
•Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol - This section examines the improvements
made to STP for faster convergence.

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Spanning Tree Protocol
Fundamentals
• Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) enables switches to become aware of other switches
through the advertisement and receipt of bridge protocol data units (BPDUs).
• STP operates by selecting a master switch and running a tree-based algorithm to
identify which redundant ports should not forward traffic.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Spanning Tree Versions
STP has multiple iterations:
• 802.1D, which is the original specification
• Per-VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST)
• Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+)
• 802.1W Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP)
• 802.1S Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MST)

Note: Catalyst switches now operate in PVST+, RSTP, and MST modes.
All three of these modes are backward compatible with 802.1D.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
IEEE 802.1D STP Port States
Every port transitions through the following states:

Port States Description

Disabled The port is in an administratively off position (that is, shut down).
Blocking The switch port is enabled, but the port is not forwarding any traffic.
Listening The switch port has transitioned from a blocking state and can now send or
receive only BPDUs.
Learning The switch port can modify the MAC address table. The switch still does not
forward any other network traffic besides BPDUs.
Forwarding The switch port can forward all network traffic and can update the
MAC address table as expected.
Broken The switch has detected a problem on a port that can have major effects. The
port discards packets as long as the problem continues to exist.
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
802.1D STP Port Types
The 802.1D STP standard defines the following three port types:

Port Types Description

Root port (RP) A network port that connects to the root bridge or an upstream
switch in the spanning-tree topology. There should be only one root port per
VLAN on a switch.
Designated A network port that receives and forwards BPDU frames to
port (DP) other switches. Designated ports provide connectivity to downstream
devices and switches. There should be only one active designated port on a
link.
Blocking port A network that is not forwarding traffic because of STP calculations.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
STP Key Terminology
Terms Description
Root Bridge The most important switch. All ports are in a forwarding state and are
categorized as designated ports.
Bridge protocol data Used to identify a hierarchy and notify of changes in the topology
unit (BPDU) There are two types of BPDUs: configuration BPDU and topology
change notification BPDU.
Configuration BPDU Used to identify the root bridge, root, designated, and blocking ports.

Topology change Used to communicate changes in the Layer 2 topology to other

notification (TCN) switches.
BPDU
Root path cost The combined cost for a specific path toward the root switch.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
STP Key Terminology (Cont.)
Terms Description
System priority This 4-bit value indicates the preference for a switch to be root
bridge. The default value is 32,768.
System ID extension This 12-bit value indicates the VLAN that the BPDU correlates.
Root bridge identifier This is a combination of the root bridge system MAC address,
system ID extension, and system priority of the root bridge.
Local bridge identifier This is a combination of the local switch’s bridge system MAC
address, system ID extension, and system priority of the root bridge.
Max age Maximum length of time that passes before a bridge port saves its
BPDU information. The default value is 20 seconds.
Hello time The time that a BPDU is advertised out of a port. The default value
is 2 seconds, but the value can be configured to 1 to 10 seconds.
Forward delay The amount of time that a port stays in a listening and learning
state. The default value is 15 seconds.
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
STP Path Cost
• The root path is found based on Link Speed Short-Mode Long-Mode STP Cost
the cumulative interface STP cost STP Cost
to reach the root bridge.
10 Mbps 100 2,000,000
• The interface STP cost was
originally stored as a 16-bit value 100 Mbps 19 200,000
with a reference value of 20 1 Gbps 4 20,000
Gbps.
10 Gbps 2 2,000
• Another method, called long
20 Gbps 1 1,000
mode, uses a 32-bit value and
uses a reference speed of 20 100 Gbps 1 200
Tbps.
1 Tbps 1 20
• The original method, known as
short mode, is the default mode. 10 Tbps 1 2

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Building the STP Topology
• This section focuses on
the logic switches use to
build an STP topology.
• The focus is on VLAN 1,
but VLANs 10, 20, and 99
also exist.
• SW1 has been identified
as the root bridge, and the
RP, DP, and blocking ports
have been identified.

.
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Root Bridge Election
The first step with STP is to identify the root bridge.
As a switch initializes, it assumes that it is the root bridge and uses the local bridge
identifier as the root bridge identifier.
It then listens to its neighbor’s configuration BPDU and does the following:
• If the neighbor’s configuration BPDU is inferior to its own BPDU, the switch ignores that
BPDU.
• If the neighbor’s configuration BPDU is preferred to its own BPDU, the switch updates its
BPDUs to include the new root bridge identifier along with a new root path cost that
correlates to the total path cost to reach the new root bridge.
• This process continues until all switches in a topology have identified the root bridge
switch.
• STP prefers lower priority number then goes to lower MAC address.
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
STP Root Path Costs
• The advertised root path cost is
always the value calculated on
the local switch.
• The local root path cost is the
advertised root path cost plus
the local interface port cost.
• The root path cost is always
zero on the root bridge.
• Figure 2-2 illustrates the root
path cost as SW1 advertises
the configuration BPDUs
toward SW3 and then SW3’s
configuration BPDUs toward
SW5.
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.
Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Locating Root Ports
Once the Root Bridge is found, the switch must determine its Root Port.
The RP is selected using the following logic:
1. The interface associated to lowest path cost is more preferred.
2. The interface associated to the lowest system priority of the advertising switch is
preferred next.
3. The interface associated to the lowest system MAC address of the advertising switch is
preferred next.
4. When multiple links are associated to the same switch, the lowest port priority from the
advertising switch is preferred.
5. When multiple links are associated to the same switch, the lower port number from the
advertising switch is preferred.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Locating Root Ports Verified
Use the show spanning-tree root command to verify the Root ID and the Root Port.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Locating Blocked Designated Switch Ports
The RPs have been identified and all other ports are considered designated ports. If two
non-root switches are connected to each other on their designated ports, one port must be set
to a blocking state to prevent a forwarding loop. Calculate which ports should be blocked
between two non-root switches:
1. The interface is a designated port and must not be considered an RP.

2. The switch with the lower path cost to the root bridge forwards, and the one with the higher path
cost blocks. If they tie, they move on to the next step.
3. The system priority of the local switch is compared to the system priority of the remote switch.
The local port is moved to a blocking state if the remote system priority is lower than that of the
local switch. If they tie, they move on to the next step.
4. The system MAC address of the local switch is compared to the system priority of the remote
switch. The local designated port is moved to a blocking state if the remote system MAC address
is lower than that of the local switch. If the links are connected to the same switch, they move on
to the next step.
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Viewing STP Information
These port types are expected on
Catalyst switches:
Point-to-point (P2P) - This port
type connects with another
network device (PC or RSTP
switch).
P2P edge -This port type specifies
that portfast is enabled on this
port.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Viewing STP Information
Verify Cost and Root Ports with the
show spanning-tree vlan 1
command.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Verify VLAN Information on a Trunk
If a VLAN is missing on a trunk
port, check the trunk port
configuration for accuracy.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
STP Topology Changes
BPDUs always flow from the root bridge toward the edge switches, unless there are changes in
the topology.
• The switch that detects a link status change sends a topology change notification (TCN)
BPDU toward the root bridge out of its RP.
• If an upstream switch receives the TCN, it sends out an acknowledgment and forwards the
TCN out its RP to the root bridge.
• Upon receipt of the TCN, the root bridge creates a new configuration BPDU with the Topology
Change flag set, and it is then flooded to all the switches.
• When switches receive this, they set their MAC address timer to a default 15 seconds. Then
the device flushes its MAC table if has not heard from a device in that last 15 seconds.
• TCNs are generated on a VLAN basis, so the impact of TCNs directly correlates to the
number of hosts in a VLAN.
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Verify STP Topology Changes
Use the show spanning-tree vlan # detail command to see topology changes.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Converging with Direct Link Failures
When a switch loses power or reboots, or when a cable is removed from a port, the Layer 1
signaling places the port into a down state, which can notify other processes, such as STP.
STP considers such an event a direct link failure and can react in one of three ways:
• The link between SW2 and SW3 fails. If the link is already blocking there is no impact to
traffic between the two switches as they both transmit data through SW1. Both SW2 and
SW3 will advertise a TCN toward the root switch, which results in the Layer 2 topology
flushing its MAC address table.
• The link between SW1 and SW3 fails. Network traffic from SW1 or SW2 toward SW3 is
impacted because SW3 Gi1/0/2 port is in a blocking state.
• The link between SW1 and SW2 fails. Network traffic from SW1 or SW3 toward SW2 is
impacted because SW3’s Gi1/0/2 port is in a blocking state.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Converging with Direct Link Failures (Cont.)
The link between SW1 and SW3 fails.
Phase 1. SW1 detects a link failure on its
Gi1/0/3 interface. SW3 detects a link failure
on its Gi1/0/1 interface.
Phase 2. Normally SW1 would generate a
TCN flag out its root port, but it is the root
bridge, so it does not. SW1 would advertise
a TCN if it were not the root bridge.

SW3 removes its best BPDU received from

SW1 on its Gi1/0/1 interface because it is
now in a down state. At this point, SW3
would attempt to send a TCN toward the root
switch to notify it of a topology change;
however, its root port is down.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Converging with Direct Link Failures (Cont.)
Phase 3. SW1 advertises a configuration
BPDU with the Topology Change flag out of all
its ports. This BPDU is received and relayed to
all switches in the environment.

Phase 4. SW2 and SW3 receive the

configuration BPDU with the Topology Change
flag. These switches then reduce the MAC
address age timer to the forward delay timer to
flush out older MAC entries. In this phase,
SW2 does not know what changed in the
topology.

Phase 5. SW3 must wait until it hears from the

root bridge again or the Max Age timer expires
before it can reset the port state and start to
listen for BPDUs on the Gi1/0/2 interface
(which was in the blocking state previously).
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Converging with Direct Link Failures
The link between SW1 and SW2 fails.
Phase 1. SW1 detects a link failure on its
Gi1/0/1 interface. SW2 detects a link failure
on its Gi1/0/3 interface.
Phase 2. Normally SW1 would generate a
TCN flag out its root port, but it is the root
bridge, so it does not. SW1 would advertise
a TCN if it were not the root bridge.
SW2 removes its best BPDU received from
SW1 on its Gi1/0/1 interface because it is
now in a down state. At this point, SW2
would attempt to send a TCN toward the
root switch to notify it of a topology change;
however, its root port is down.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Converging with Direct Link Failures (Cont.)
Phase 3. SW1 advertises a configuration
BPDU with the Topology Change flag out of
all its ports. This BPDU is then received
and relayed to SW3. SW3 cannot relay this
to SW2 as its Gi1/0/2 port is still in a
blocking state. SW2 assumes that it is now
the root bridge and advertises configuration
BPDUs with itself as the root bridge.

Phase 4. SW3 receives the configuration

BPDU with the Topology Change flag from
SW1. SW3 reduces the MAC address age
timer to the forward delay timer to flush out
older MAC entries. SW3 receives inferior
BPDUs from SW2 and discards them as it
is still receiving superior BPDUs from SW1.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Converging with Direct Link Failures (Cont.)
Phase 5. The Max Age timer on SW3
expires, and now the Gi1/0/2 port on
SW3 transitions from blocking to
listening state. SW3 can now forward
the next configuration BPDU it receives
from SW1 to SW2.
Phase 6. SW2 receives the
configuration BPDU of SW via SW3
and recognizes it as superior. It marks
its Gi1/0/3 interface as the root port and
transitions it to the listening state.
Total convergence time for SW2 is 52
seconds.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Indirect Failures
STP communication between
switches is impaired or filtered while
the network link remains up. This
situation is known as an indirect link
failure, and timers are required to
detect and remediate the topology.

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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Indirect Failures (Cont.)
There is an impediment or data corruption
on the link between SW1 and SW3.

Phase 1. An event occurs that impairs or

corrupts data on the link. SW1 and SW3
still report a link up condition.

Phase 2. SW3 stops receiving configuration

BPDUs on its RP. It keeps a cached entry
for the RP on Gi1/0/1. Configuration BPDUs
from SW1 that are being transmitted via
SW2 are discarded as its Gi1/0/2 port is in
a blocking state.

Once the Max Age timer expires on SW3

and flushes the cached entry of the RP,
SW3 transitions Gi1/0/2 from blocking to
listening state.
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Spanning Tree Protocol Fundamentals
Indirect Failures (Cont.)
Phase 3. SW2 continues to
advertise the configuration BPDUs
from SW1 toward SW3.
Phase 4. SW3 receives SW1’s
configuration BPDU via SW2 on its
Gi1/0/2 interface. This port is now
marked as the RP and continues to
transition through the listening and
learning states.
The total time for re-convergence
on SW3 is 52 seconds.

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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
• IEEE 802.1D has only one topology tree and a slower convergence which can be
problematic.
• Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) IEEE 802.1W reduces the number of port states
to be faster and more efficient.

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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
Rapid Spanning Tree Port States
IEEE 802.1D has only one topology tree which can be problematic. Larger environments with
multiple VLANs need different STP topologies for traffic engineering purposes.
• Cisco created the proprietary Per-VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST) and Per-VLAN Spanning Tree
Plus (PVST+)
• Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) IEEE 802.1W reduces the number of port states to three:

Port States Description

Discarding The switch port is enabled, but the port is not forwarding any traffic
to ensure that a loop is not created.
Learning The switch port modifies the MAC address table. The switch still does not
forward any other network traffic besides BPDUs.
Forwarding The switch port forwards all network traffic and updates the MAC
address table as expected.
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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
Rapid Spanning Tree Port Roles
RSTP defines the following port roles:

Port Roles Description

Root port (RP): A network port that connects to the root bridge or an upstream switch in the
spanning-tree topology. There should be only one root port per VLAN.
Designated A network port that receives and forwards BPDU frames to other switches.
port (DP): Designated ports provide connectivity to downstream devices and switches.
There should be only one active designated port on a link.
Alternate port: A network port that provides alternate connectivity toward the root
switch through a different switch.
Backup port: A network port that provides link redundancy toward the current root
switch. A backup port exists only when multiple links connect
between the same switches.
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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
Rapid Spanning Tree Port Types
RSTP defines three types of ports that are used for building the STP topology:

Port Roles Description

Edge Port A port at the edge of the network where hosts connect to the Layer 2
topology with one interface and cannot form a loop. These ports directly
correlate to ports that have the STP portfast feature enabled.
Root port A port that has the best path cost toward the root bridge. There can be only
one root port on a switch.
Point-to-Point Any port that connects to another RSTP switch with full duplex.
port Full-duplex links do not permit more than two devices on a network segment,
so determining whether a link is full duplex is the fastest way to check the
feasibility of being connected to a switch.
Multi-access connections (Hubs) must use 802.1D.

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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
Building the RSTP Topology
RSTP switches exchange handshakes with other RSTP switches to transition through the
following STP states faster. They establish a bidirectional handshake across the shared link to
identify the root bridge.
The process proceeds as follows:
1. As the first two switches connect to each other, they verify that they are connected with a
point-to-point link by checking the full-duplex status.
2. They establish a handshake with each other to advertise a proposal (in configuration BPDUs)
that their interface should be the DP for that port.
3. There can be only one DP per segment, so each switch identifies whether it is the superior or
inferior switch, using the same logic as in 802.1D for the system identifier (that is, the lowest
priority and then the lowest MAC address).

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Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
Building the RSTP Topology (Cont.)
4. The inferior switch (SW2) recognizes that it is inferior and marks its local port (Gi1/0/1) as the
RP. At that same time, it moves all non-edge ports to a discarding state. At this point in time, the
switch has stopped all local switching for non-edge ports.
5. The inferior switch (SW2) sends an agreement (configuration BPDU) to the root bridge (SW1),
which signifies to the root bridge that synchronization is occurring on that switch.
6. The inferior switch (SW2) moves its RP (Gi1/0/1) to a forwarding state. The superior switch
moves its DP (Gi1/0/2) to a forwarding state, too.
7. The inferior switch (SW2) repeats the process for any downstream switches connected to it.

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Prepare for the Exam

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Prepare for the Exam
Key Topics for Chapter 2

Description

802.1D port types

STP key terminology
Root bridge election
Locating root ports
STP topology changes
RSTP
RSTP (802.1W) port states
Building the RSTP topology

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Prepare for the Exam
Key Terms for Chapter 2

Term

bridge protocol data unit (BPDU) root bridge

configuration BPDU root bridge identifier
hello time root path
designated port (DP) cost
forward delay root port
local bridge identifier system priority
Max Age system ID extension
topology change notification (TCN)

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Prepare for the Exam
Command Reference for Chapter 2
Task Command Syntax

Set the STP max age spanning-tree vlan vlan-id max-age

Set the STP hello interval spanning-tree vlan vlan-id hello-time hello-time
Set the STP forwarding delay spanning-tree vlan vlan-id forward-time
forward-time
Display the STP root bridge and cost show spanning-tree root
Display the STP information (root bridge, show spanning-tree [vlan vlan-id]
local bridge, and interfaces) for one or
more VLANs
Identify when the last TCN occurred and show spanning-tree [vlan vlan-id] detail
which port was the reason for it.

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