∙If a path becomes faulty, the root port on this will no longer receives new configuration BPDUs and the old configuration BPDUs will be discarded due to timeout. The device generates a configuration BPDU with itself as the root and sends out the BPDUs and TCN BPDUs. This triggers a new spanning tree calculation process to establish a new path to restore the network connectivity.

However, the newly calculated configuration BPDU cannot be propagated throughout the network immediately, so the old root ports and designated ports that have not detected the topology change continue forwarding data along the old path. If the new root ports and designated ports begin to forward data as soon as they are elected, a temporary loop may occur.

STP timers

STP calculation involves the following timers: forward delay, hello time, and max age.

∙Forward delay

Forward delay is the delay time for state transition.

A path failure can cause spanning tree re-calculation to adapt the spanning tree structure to the change. However, the resulting new configuration BPDU cannot propagate throughout the network immediately. If the newly elected root ports and designated ports start to forward data right away, a temporary loop is likely to occur.

For this reason, as a mechanism for state transition in STP, the newly elected root ports or designated ports require twice the forward delay time before transiting to the forwarding state to ensure that the new configuration BPDU has propagated throughout the network.

∙Hello time

The device sends hello packets at the hello time interval to the neighboring devices to ensure that the paths are fault-free.

∙Max age

The device uses the max age to determine whether a stored configuration BPDU has expired and discards it if the max age is exceeded.

RSTP

RSTP achieves rapid network convergence by allowing a newly elected root port or designated port to enter the forwarding state much faster under certain conditions than STP.

A newly elected RSTP root port rapidly enters the forwarding state if the old root port on the device has stopped forwarding data and the upstream designated port has started forwarding data.

A newly elected RSTP designated port rapidly enters the forwarding state if it is an edge port (which directly connects to a user terminal rather than to another network device or a shared LAN segment) or it connects to a point-to-point link (to another device). Edge ports directly enter the forwarding state. Connecting to a point-to-point link, a designated port enters the forwarding state immediately after the device receives a handshake response from the directly connected device.

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