Graco GE-DS-242-POE manual Illustration of STP, Default Spanning-Tree Configuration

Chapter 4: Web-Based Management

Default Spanning-Tree Configuration

Feature	Default Value
Enable state	STP disabled for all ports
Port priority	128
Port cost	0
Bridge Priority	32,768

NOTE: The Hello Time cannot be longer than the Max. Age. Otherwise, a configuration error will occur.

Observe the following formulas when setting the above parameters:

•Max. Age _ 2 x (Forward Delay - 1 second)

•Max. Age _ 2 x (Hello Time + 1 second)

Illustration of STP

A simple illustration of three switches connected in a loop is depicted in the below diagram. In this example, you can anticipate some major network problems if the STP assistance is not applied.

If switch A broadcasts a packet to switch B, switch B will broadcast it to switch C, and switch C will broadcast it to back to switch A and so on. The broadcast packet will be passed indefinitely in a loop, potentially causing a network failure. In this example, STP breaks the loop by blocking the connection between switch B and C. The decision to block a particular connection is based on the STP calculation of the most current Bridge and Port settings.

Now, if switch A broadcasts a packet to switch C, then switch C will drop the packet at port 2 and the broadcast will end there. Setting-up STP using values other than the defaults, can be complex. Therefore, you are advised to keep the default factory settings and STP will automatically assign root bridges/ports and block loop connections. Influencing STP to choose a particular switch as the root bridge using the Priority setting, or influencing STP to choose a particular port to block using the Port Priority and Port Cost settings is, however, relatively straight forward.

74 GE-DS-242-PoE Managed Ethernet Switch User Manual