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Chapter 8 Wireless Configuration
NWA-3500/NWA-3550 User’s Guide
132
to propagate to the root bridge and unwanted learned addresses are flushed from
the filtering database. In RSTP, the port states are Discarding, Learning, and
Forwarding.
8.5.1.2 STP Terminology
The root bridge is the base of the spanning tree; it is the bridge with the lowest
identifier value (MAC address).
Path cost is the cost of transmitting a frame onto a LAN through that port. It is
assigned according to the speed of the link to which a port is attached. The slower
the media, the higher the cost - see the following table.
On each bridge, the root port is the port through which this bridge communicates
with the root. It is the port on this switch with the lowest path cost to the root (the
root path cost). If there is no root port, then this bridge has been accepted as the
root bridge of the spanning tree network.
For each LAN segment, a designated bridge is selected. This bridge has the lowest
cost to the root among the bridges connected to the LAN.
8.5.1.3 How STP Works
After a bridge determines the lowest cost-spanning tree with STP, it enables the
root port and the ports that are the designated ports for connected LANs, and
disables all other ports that participate in STP. Network packets are therefore only
forwarded between enabled ports, eliminating any possible network loops.
STP-aware bridges exchange Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs) periodically.
When the bridged LAN topology changes, a new spanning tree is constructed.
Once a stable network topology has been established, all bridges listen for Hello
BPDUs (Bridge Protocol Data Units) transmitted from the root bridge. If a bridge
does not get a Hello BPDU after a predefined interval (Max Age), the bridge
assumes that the link to the root bridge is down. This bridge then initiates
negotiations with other bridges to reconfigure the network to re-establish a valid
network topology.
Table 30 STP Path Costs
LINK SPEED
RECOMMENDE
D VALUE
RECOMMENDE
D RANGE
ALLOWED
RANGE
Path Cost 4Mbps 250 100 to 1000 1 to 65535
Path Cost 10Mbps 100 50 to 600 1 to 65535
Path Cost 16Mbps 62 40 to 400 1 to 65535
Path Cost 100Mbps 19 10 to 60 1 to 65535
Path Cost 1Gbps 4 3 to 10 1 to 65535
Path Cost 10Gbps 2 1 to 5 1 to 65535