Spanning Tree Protocol

We have had an introductory look at the need for Spanning Tree

Protocol on bridged and switched networks with redundant links. If
you recall, without STP a switched network with redundant links will
ultimately lead to broadcast storms that are capable of quickly
overwhelming a network. In this Study Guide, we'll take a look at
specific Spanning Tree terms, concepts, and operations.
The material to be covered in this Study Guide includes:
Introduction to Spanning Tree Protocol
Spanning Tree Port States
The STP Root Bridge
Port Costs
Root Ports
Designated Ports
Convergence
Introduction to Spanning Tree Protocol
The specific purpose of Spanning Tree Protocol (IEEE 802.1d) is to
prevent loops on switched or bridged internetworks that include
redundant links. While mainly used on switched networks today,
STP was originally developed for a time when most networks were
segmented using bridges rather than routers. This was not only a
function of simplicity (bridges are typically less difficult to
implement than a router), but also of the protocols in use. While we
might take the use of routed protocols like TCP/IP for granted today,
there was a time when many networks commonly used nonroutable protocols like NetBEUI. In those cases, segmenting a
network at Layer 2 was the only real option in terms of controlling
network traffic.
Note: The terms "switch" and "bridge" are used interchangeably
throughout these Study Guides. You should treat them as one and
the same.
When Spanning Tree is implemented on a switched network with
redundant links, its purpose is to selectively block certain ports such
that any potential network loops that might cause a broadcast

storm are eliminated. As such, the physical links that form a loop
can be in place for the purpose of redundancy, but only a single
path will be forwarding frames at any point in time. Should the
active link fail, Spanning Tree will activate one of the redundant
links automatically. Unfortunately, it does take some time for
Spanning Tree to first of all recognize that a link has failed, and
secondly switch a previously blocked port to a forwarding state.
Once the network is back to forwarding frames normally, it is said to
have converged.
Spanning Tree Port States
On almost all Cisco switches, Spanning Tree Protocol is turned on by
default. The reason for this is simple, if it weren't, you might
accidentally create a network loop when configuring redundant
links. In that way, the default STP configuration is trying to save
you from yourself. On many older bridges and switches, STP was
often not configured by default, which could lead to some pretty
serious communication issues that could be difficult to track down.
On a switch or bridge running Spanning Tree, ports will be in one of
four different states. Each of these states is listed below. The
transition between states will be discussed shortly.
Listening. In this state, a port is listening to Spanning Tree
messages known as Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs), attempting
to determine how the network is configured. When in a listening
state, a port is not forwarding frames.
Learning. In this state, a port is adding MAC addresses to its MAC
address table. When in a learning state, a port is also not
forwarding frames.
Forwarding. In this state, a port is sending and receiving data as
normal. Once a network has converged, a port will be in either a
forwarding or blocking state.
Blocking. In a blocking state, a port will not send or receive any
data traffic, but will still listen to STP BPDU messages. When a

switch or bridge running STP is powered on, all ports will be in a

blocking state.
While the four different STP port states are fairly easy to recognize
and remember, the key thing to understand is how the port state
will be determined. On an STP network, bridges and switches will
pass messages between each other known as BPDUs. These
messages are multicasts that are used to determine the STP
network topology. An STP switch or bridge will send out BPDU
messages every 2 seconds by default. How the information in a
BPDU is used will become clearer in the upcoming sections.
The STP Root Bridge
For whatever reason, people tend to become very confused by the
terms and concepts of Spanning Tree Protocol. The truth of the
matter is that STP is not very difficult at all. At the most basic level,
just keep in mind that it's purpose is to ensure that a switched or
bridged network remains loop free.
The most important switch on any STP network is known as the
Root Bridge. In any Spanning Tree implementation, only one switch
holds this role, and this switch becomes the center of this little
Spanning Tree universe. The role of the Root Bridge is determined
according to an election that takes place on an STP network. Quite
simple, when STP bridges first start up, BPDU messages are passed
between systems to see which switch will be elected as the Root
Bridge. When switches or bridges are running STP, each will have a
bridge priority associated with it. By default, all STP switches are
configured with a bridge priority value of 32,768. After the
exchange of BPDUs, the switch with the lowest priority value
becomes the Root Bridge.
Obviously this presents an issue. In most cases, bridge priority
values will not have been changed from their defaults, meaning that
all switches will probably have the same priority. Because of this, a
second criteria is used to determine the Root Bridge as well. In case
where more than one system qualifies to become the Root Bridge
according to its priority value, the switch with the lowest MAC

address will win. In this way, a switch's MAC address acts as a type
of tiebreaker. Your goal should be to have a powerful and centrallylocated switch act as your Root Bridge if possible. The easy way to
ensure this is to configure it with a lower bridge priority value than
the other switches on your network.
But why all this fuss about the Root Bridge? Well, other switches
and bridges on an STP network need to calculate a path to the Root
Bridge in order to determine which of their ports will be placed in a
forwarding mode, and which will be blocked. Ultimately, a switch will
attempt to place the port with the "shortest" path to the Root Bridge
in a forwarding mode, and place all other redundant links in a
blocked state. In the case of STP, the "shortest" path is the one with
the lowest aggregate port cost to the Root Bridge. Port costs are
looked at in the next section.
Port Costs
Much like a Spanning Tree switch has a bridge priority value, so do
individual ports. By default, port costs are determined according to
the speeds that they support - the faster the port, the lower its
associated cost. The default IEEE costs associated with common
port speeds are listed in the table below.
Link Speed

Port
Cost

Gigabit Ethernet

Fast Ethernet

19

(100 Mbps)
Ethernet (10

100

Mbps)

Ultimately, a switch will use port costs in attempting to determine

the Root Port for each and every switch. All non-root bridges will
have one Root Port that will be used as the link over which data will
be forwarded on the Spanning Tree network. The Root Port
represents a switch's lowest cost path to the Root Bridge.

Root Ports
The purpose of the Root Port is best illustrated with an example.
Consider the figure below. In it, there are three bridges, and Bridge
A has been made the Root Bridge, on account of the fact that it has
the lowest MAC address (notice that all bridge priorities are equal).
By default, all ports on the Root Bridge are also Root Ports, and
have a cost of 0 (Since they are directly connected to the Root
Bridge, their cost to reach the Root Bridge is 0).

Notice also that in this example, Bridge B is connected to Bridge A

via a 100 Mbps link, which Bridge C is connected to Bridge A via a
10 Mbps link. Both Bridges B and C are also connected at 10 Mbps
to Segment BC - as such, you should notice from the diagram that a
loop exists. Now that we've established that our network has a loop,
let's take a look at how STP will determine which links will remain in
a forwarding mode and which will enter a blocking mode.
Recall that STP information is transferred via BPDUs. In this case,
Bridge A has already been elected the Root Bridge on account of the
fact that it has the lowest MAC address. However, the transfer of
BPDUs does not stop here - they continue to be sent out every 2
seconds by default. In this case, the Root Bridge will send out
BPDUs with a port costs of 0 - remember, it is the Root Bridge, so
there should be no cost for its own ports to reach it! These BPDUs

will be received on port 1 on both Bridge B and C. When received by

Bridge B, it will add its own port cost to the cost provided by the
Root Bridge - since the cost associated with a 100 Mbps port is 19,
Bridge B port 1 determines that it can reach the Root Bridge with a
total cost of 19. Similarly, Bridge C's port 1 (connected at 10 Mbps)
will determine that it can reach the Root Bridge with a total cost of
100 (100+0).
Unfortunately, things don't quite end here. Remember that Bridges
B and C are also connected to Network 1(Segment BC) and will also
be sending out BPDUs on their interface connected to this network
(port 2 for both bridges). Let's begin by assuming that Bridge B is
sending out a BPDU to Bridge C over this network. In it, Bridge B
will announce to C that it can reach the Root Bridge with a cost of
19. When this message reaches Bridge C, it will add its port 2 cost
to this value, calculating that it can reach the Root Bridge with a
total cost of 119 (100+19) via port 2. Now, Bridge C knows that it
can reach the Root Bridge via port 1 with a cost of 100, or via port
2 with a cost of 119. Based on these 2 paths, Bridge C will
determine that port 1 (the one with the lower cost to the root)
should be its Root Port.
Similarly, Bridge C will send BPDUs to Bridge B across Segment BC.
In these messages, Bridge C will announce a cost to the Root Bridge
of 100. When received by Bridge B, it will add this cost to the cost
of its port 2 interface - now Bridge B also knows that it can reach
the Root Bridge (via Bridge C) with a total cost of 200. Based on the
two possible paths, Bridge B will determine that port 1 (the one with
the lower cost to the root) should be its Root Port.
Designated Ports
Even though we've now determined which port(s) should be the
Root Ports on our network's switches, we still need to determine
which ports will be placed in a blocking or forwarding mode. For
example, Segment BC still has two possible paths to the Root
Bridge - via port 2 on both Bridge B and Bridge C. In order to
eliminate this loop, one of these two ports will need to be
placed in a blocking mode.

On a Spanning Tree network, each and every segment will

have one port chosen as the Designated Port. The
Designated Port is the port that acts as the single interface
to forward traffic to the Root Bridge, as is determined via
another election using BPDUs. For example, in our network, there
are three segments - Segment AC, Segment AB, and Segment BC,
as shown in the diagram earlier. On each segment, one of the
connected bridge ports will need to be elected as the Designated
Port. In all cases, this is always the switch port on the segment with
the lower port cost. For example, on Segment BC, two paths (via
port 2 on both bridges) are available to the Root Bridge, forming a
loop. In this case, port 2 on both Bridges B and C have port costs of
100 on Segment BC. Because both bridges have an equal port cost,
MAC addresses will again be used to determine the Designated Port,
making Bridge B (which has the lower MAC address) the Designated
Port on the Segment BC segment. As such, port 2 on Bridge B
will be placed in a forwarding mode, and Bridge C port 2 in a
blocking mode. Once this occurs, all traffic from Segment BC will
exit the segment via Bridge B. This is illustrated in the diagram
below.

Convergence
After learning about the Root Bridge, Root Ports, and Designated
Ports, it's time to bring it all together. Once the transfer of BPDUs
between systems has determined all of these factors, the network
will be loop free. However, the key to understanding the operating
of Spanning Tree lies in appreciating what happens when something
goes wrong, namely the failure of a link that is forwarding traffic.
Even once the STP topology of a network has been calculated,
switches will still be forwarding BPDUs every 2 seconds. These
messages serve to inform switches of which links are still
active, and which are not. For example, let's say that Bridge B in
our example was to fail or be powered down. In this case, Bridge C
will fail to receive BPDU messages from Bridge B on it's port 2
interface (remember that a port continues to listen to BPDU
messages, even which in a blocking state). After 20 seconds have
passed without Bridge C receiving a BPDU on port 2 from Bridge B,
Bridge C will assume that Bridge B is not available, and will transfer
into the listening state. The listening state lasts for 15 seconds, and
is the time when Bridge B will be listening to and inspecting BPDUs
from all other bridges. Recall that during the listening stage, the
bridge port will still not be forwarding traffic.
After the 15 seconds of the listening state is complete, port 2 will go
into a learning state for another 15 seconds. During this time, port
2 will be learning MAC addresses, as discussed earlier. As with the
listening state, port 2 will not be forwarding traffic during this
period.
Once the learning state is complete, port 2 will transition into
forwarding mode, where it will forward traffic as the active path to
the Root Bridge. At this point, the network is considered to be
converged. It's worth noting the amount of time that passes
between the transition from a blocking to a forwarding mode. In all,
this constitutes a total of 50 seconds - 20 seconds without receiving
BPDUs from the Designated Port, and 15 seconds each of both
listening and learning. During this time, no traffic would be
forwarded to or from Network 1(Segment BC). While some people

might consider this delay unacceptable, it is the cost of obtaining

the benefits that Spanning Tree provides in allowing a network to be
configured with redundant links.
In closing, the calculation of a Spanning Tree topology is a threestep process:
1. Elect a Root Bridge
2. Elect a Root Port on each non-root bridge
3. Elect a Designated Port on each segment
Once these three steps are completed, the network will be loopfree.
Next we'll take a look at two additional Layer 2 concepts, namely
VLANs and Trunking protocols.