Netgear XCM8806 Chassis Hardware Installation Guide - Page 737

17. STP Commands 17 This chapter describes commands for: • Creating, configuring, enabling, and disabling Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) on the switch • Enabling and disabling Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) on the switch • Enabling and disabling Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) on the switch • Displaying and resetting STP settings on the switch STP STP is a bridge-based mechanism for providing fault tolerance on networks. STP is a part of the 802.1D bridge specification defined by the IEEE Computer Society. To explain STP in terms used by the 802.1D specification, the switch is referred to as a bridge. STP allows you to implement parallel paths for network traffic and ensure that redundant paths are: • Disabled when the main paths are operational. • Enabled if the main path fails. RSTP The Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) IEEE 802.1w provides an enhanced spanning tree algorithm that improves the convergence speed of bridged networks. RSTP takes advantage of point-to-point links in the network and actively confirms that a port can safely transition to the forwarding state without relying on any timer configurations. If a network topology change or failure occurs, RSTP rapidly recovers network connectivity by confirming the change locally before propagating that change to other devices across the network. For broadcast links, there is no difference in convergence time between STP and RSTP. RSTP supersedes legacy STP protocols, supports the existing STP parameters and configurations, and allows for seamless interoperability with legacy STP. Chapter 17. STP Commands | 737