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    Chap 3 STP CONCEPTS

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    Chap 3 STP CONCEPTS

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    Chap 3 STP CONCEPTS

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    of 8

    Chapter 3: SPANNING TREE

    PROTOCOL (STP ) CONCEPTS

    Objectives:
    You will be able to:
    -define STP
    -know how STP works
    -know the different types of STP
    -configure steps by steps a STP and RSTP
    Introduction
    A Layer 2 network protocol known as Spanning tree protocol is used to prevent
    looping within a network topology. STP helps to avoid the issues when end devices
    exchange data on a local area network that contains redundant paths. In the
    following lines we will learn how this protocol works, know the varieties of this
    network protocol and configure step by step a STP and RSTP.

    I. STP protocol in a switched network


    STP is used to prevent problems by monitoring the whole network and tracking
    all the links and then shut down the redundant one.

    a. How STP works?


    STP uses the STA (Spanning-Tree Algorithm) to create a topology database of the network.
    To avoid loops, STA places some interfaces in forwarding state and other interfaces in
    blocking state. STP decides in which state the port will be placed by a couple of criteria:

    1. all switches in a network elect a root switch. All working interfaces on the root switch are
    placed in forwarding state.
    2. all other switches, called nonroot switches, determine the best path to get to the root
    switch. The port used to reach the root switch (root port) is placed in forwarding state.
    3. On the shared Ethernet segments, the switch with the best path to reach the root is placed
    in forwarding state. That switch is called the designated switch and its port is known as the
    designated port.
    4. all other interfaces are placed in blocking state and will not forward frames.

    b. STP protocol frames


    STP uses bridge protocol data units (BPDUs), also known as configuration
    messages and as its protocol frames. This uses BPDUs to represent all types of
    spanning tree protocol frames.

    STP enable devices to exchange BPDUs in order to establish a spanning tree. BPDUs
    contain sufficient information for the devices to complete spanning tree calculation.

    Configuration of BPDUs
    Devices exchange configuration BPDUs to elect the root bridge and determine the port
    roles. The Figure below shows the BPDUs format:

    The payload of a configuration BPDU includes the following fields:

     Protocol ID—Fixed at 0x0000, which represents IEEE 802.1d.


     Protocol version ID The protocol version ID for STP is 0x00.
     BPDU type—Type of the BPDU. The value is 0x00 for a configuration BPDU.
     Flags—An 8-bit field indicates the purpose of the BPDU. The lowest bit is the Topology
    Change (TC) flag. The highest bit is the Topology Change Acknowledge (TCA) flag. All
    other bits are reserved.
     Root ID—Root bridge ID formed by the priority and MAC address of the root bridge.
     Root path cost—Cost of the path to the root bridge.
     Bridge ID—Designated bridge ID formed by the priority and MAC address of the
    designated bridge.
     Port ID—Designated port ID formed by the priority and global port number of the
    designated port.
     Message age—Age of the configuration BPDU while it propagates in the network.
     Max age—Maximum age of the configuration BPDU stored on the switch.
     Hello time—Configuration BPDU transmission interval.
     Forward delay—Delay for STP bridges to transit port state.
    Devices use the root bridge ID, root path cost, designated bridge ID, designated port ID,
    message age, max age, hello time, and forward delay for spanning tree calculation.

    c. Process of root election


    A switch with the lowest switch ID will become the root switch. A switch ID consists
    of two components: the switch’s priority (by default 32,768 on Cisco switches) and
    the switch’s MAC address.
    d. The states of ports
    In a switched network the ports on the switches can either be in forwarding state or
    blocking state.
    Let’s say that SW1 is elected as the root switch. All ports on SW1 are placed into
    forwarding state. SW2 and SW3 choose ports with the lowest cost to reach the root
    switch to be the root ports. These ports are also placed in forwarding state. On the
    shared Ethernet segment between SW2 and SW3, port Fa0/1 on SW2 has the
    lowest cost to reach the root switch. This port is placed in forwarding state. To
    prevent loops, port Fa0/1 on SW3 is placed in blocking state.
    II. The STP varieties
    There exist different types of stp:
    1. 802.1D – as CST (Common Spanning Tree),It is developed by IEEE.
    The CST elects only one root for the whole topology. The best path is
    established and all the traffic flows over that path. However this doesn’t
    hold always the good way, as there can be a case in which the
    optimised path to reach a VLAN is different than the initial best path.
    This make it slow as it takes 32 seconds to converge.

    Advantages:
     Less CPU and memory required.
    Disadvantages:
     Lesser optimisation as the path is calculated following the best cost to root. The
    bridge might not be the best path to reach a network.

    2. Per VLAN Spanning Tree + (PVST+) – It is a spanning tree standard


    developed by Cisco for its devices which finds the root bridge per VLAN. It is a
    Cisco default version of STP. It finds separate 802.1d spanning tree instance for
    each VLAN. It also provides backward comparability with 802.1d or CST. This is
    more optimized to the IEEE because it provides optimal path selection as separate
    instance of STP per VLAN is.

    Advantages:
     PVST+ provides more optimization on the performance of a network than CST as it
    selects root bridges per VLAN.

     Bandwidth consumption is lesser than CST.

     Optimum load balancing is achieved.


    Disadvantages:
     This is slow as CST i.e. convergence time is slow. By default, Cisco switches take 50
    seconds for converging.
     More resources (CPU and memory) are required.

    3. 802.1w – Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) – It is a spanning standard developed


    by IEEE which provides faster convergence than CST but holds the same idea of finding a
    single root bridge in the topology. The bridge resources needed in RSTP is higher than CST
    but less than PVST+ .
    Advantages:
     Prevents network loops.
     Prevents redundancy.
     Faster Convergence.
     Backward compatible with STP.
    4. Rapid Per VLAN Spanning Tree + (RPVST+) –This Spanning Tree standard is
    developed by Cisco and provides faster convergence than PVST+ and finds separate
    instance of 802.1w per VLAN. It requires much more CPU and memory than other STP
    standards.

    5. 802.1s (Multiple Spanning Tree) :-This standard is developed by IEEE in which


    grouping of VLANs is done and for each single group, RSTP is run. This is basically a
    Spanning Tree Protocol running over another Spanning Tree Protocol.
    Advantages:
     prevents High redundancy
     load balancing can be achieved.
     lower CPU and memory usage are required
    Disadvantages:
     More configuration is required and not easy to implement.
    III- STP and RSTP configuration
    a) Steps of STP Confgiuration
    Configuration of the spanning tree protocol:

    The STP is activated by default on VLANs and also on all newly created VLANs.
    Steps of stp re-enabling:
    Step 1 – enabling STP
    Type the following commands in the concerned switch:

    step 2:

    Use the commands below to determine the root switch

    Step 3:

    We use the commands below to enable pvst or rapid-pvst


    b) Steps of RSTP Confgiuration

    RSTP Configuration Topology


    STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) has four states. These STP states are: Blocking, Listenning,
    Learning and Forwarding. With RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol), the Spanning Tree
    state Blocking and Listenning are bypassed. The RSTP states that starting with discarded, go
    through the learning and forwarding states.

    In STP (Spanning Tree Protocol), Blocking State is 20 seconds, Listenning State is 15


    seconds and Learning State is 15 seconds. So, for STP, going through forwarding states
    needs 50 seconds. This total time is 15 seconds in RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol).
    Because RSTP, bypasses the Blocking and Listenning states.

    Let’s start to configure RSTP (Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol) on Cisco Packet Tracer.
    Switch0(config)# spanning-tree mode ?
    pvst Per-Vlan spanning tree mode
    rapid-pvst Per-Vlan rapid spanning tree mode

    Switch0 (config)# spanning-tree mode rapid-pvst


    Switch0 (config)# end
    Switch0 # copy running-config startup-config

    Switch1 (config)# spanning-tree mode rapid-pvst


    Switch1 (config)# end
    Switch1 # copy running-config startup-config
    TP : configuration and functionality test

    Conclusion
    Spanning tree defines a tree topology by electing one of the switches as a root
    switch and a loop is removed from the root to all switches in the Layer 2 network.
    STP forces redundant data paths into a standby (blocked) state. There exist
    variants types of STP .In order to configure a STP set of steps are required.

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