Cisco Systems 0L-11350-01 Blocking State, Listening State, Learning State

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Cisco IOS Software Configuration Guide for Cisco Aironet Access Points
OL-11350-01
Chapter8 Configuring Spanning Tree Protocol
Understanding Spanning Tree Protocol
2. While spanning tree waits the forward-delay timer to expire, it moves the interface to the learning
state and resets the forward-delay timer.
3. In the learning state, the interface continues to block frame forwarding as the access point learns
end-station location information for the forwarding database.
4. When the forward-delay timer expires, spanning tree moves the interface to the forwarding state,
where both learning and frame forwarding are enabled.
Blocking State
An interface in the blocking state does not participate in frame forwarding. After initialization, a BPDU
is sent to the access point’s Ethernet and radio ports. A access point initially functions as the
spanning-tree root until it exchanges BPDUs with other access points. This exchange establishes which
access point in the network is the spanning-tree root. If there is only one access point in the network, no
exchange occurs, the forward-delay timer expires, and the interfaces move to the listening state. An
interface always enters the blocking state when you enable STP.
An interface in the blocking state performs as follows:
•Discards frames received on the port
•Does not learn addresses
•Receives BPDUs
Note If a access point port is blocked, some broadcast or multicast packets can reach a forwarding port on the
access point and cause the bridging logic to switch the blocked port into listening state momentarily
before the packets are dropped at the blocked port.
Listening State
The listening state is the first state an interface enters after the blocking state. The interface enters this
state when STP determines that the interface should participate in frame forwarding.
An interface in the listening state performs as follows:
•Discards frames received on the port
•Does not learn addresses
•Receives BPDUs
Learning State
An interface in the learning state prepares to participate in frame forwarding. The interface enters the
learning state from the listening state.
An interface in the learning state performs as follows:
•Discards frames received on the port
•Learns addresses
•Receives BPDUs