For an Ethernet network to function properly, only one active path can exist between any two stations.

When you create fault-tolerant internetworks, you must have a loop-free path between all nodes in a network. The STP algorithm calculates the best loop-free path throughout a switched network. LAN ports send and receive STP frames, which are called Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs), at regular intervals. Switches do not forward these frames but use the frames to construct a loop-free path.

Multiple active paths between end stations cause loops in the network. If a loop exists in the network, end stations might receive duplicate messages and switches might learn end station MAC addresses on multiple LAN ports. These conditions result in a broadcast storm, which creates an unstable network.

STP defines a tree with a root bridge and a loop-free path from the root to all switches in the network. STP forces redundant data paths into a blocked state. If a network segment in the spanning tree fails and a redundant path exists, the STP algorithm recalculates the spanning tree topology and activates the blocked path.

When two LAN ports on a switch are part of a loop, the STP port priority and port path cost setting determine which port on the switch is put in the forwarding state and which port is put in the blocking state.

All switches in an extended LAN that participate in a spanning tree gather information about other switches in the network by exchanging of BPDUs. This exchange of BPDUs results in the following actions:

• The system elects a unique root switch for the spanning tree network topology.

• The system elects a designated switch for each LAN segment.

• The system eliminates any loops in the switched network by placing redundant interfaces in a backup state; all paths that are not needed to reach the root switch from anywhere in the switched network are placed in an STP-blocked state.

The topology on an active switched network is determined by the following:

• The unique switch identifier Media Access Control (MAC) address of the switch that is associated with each switch

• The path cost to the root that is associated with each interface

• The port identifier that is associated with each interface

In a switched network, the root switch is the logical center of the spanning tree topology. STP uses BPDUs to elect the root switch and root port for the switched network, as well as the root port and designated port for each switched segment.

Each VLAN on each switch has a unique 64-bit bridge ID that consists of a bridge priority value, an extended system ID (IEEE 802.1t), and an STP MAC address allocation.

Switches transmit bridge protocol data units (BPDUs) throughout the STP instance. Each switch sends configuration BPDUs to communicate and compute the spanning tree topology. Each configuration BPDU contains the following minimal information:

• The unique bridge ID of the switch that the transmitting switch determines is the root bridge

• The STP path cost to the root

• The bridge ID of the transmitting bridge

• Message age

• The identifier of the transmitting port

• Values for the hello, forward delay, and max-age protocol timer

• Additional information for STP extension protocols

When a switch transmits a Rapid PVST+ BPDU frame, all switches connected to the VLAN on which the frame is transmitted receive the BPDU. When a switch receives a BPDU, it does not forward the frame but instead uses the information in the frame to calculate a BPDU, and, if the topology changes, initiate a BPDU transmission.

A BPDU exchange results in the following:

• One switch is elected as the root bridge.

• The shortest distance to the root bridge is calculated for each switch based on the path cost.

• A designated bridge for each LAN segment is selected. This is the switch closest to the root bridge through which frames are forwarded to the root.

• A root port is selected. This is the port providing the best path from the bridge to the root bridge.

• Ports included in the spanning tree are selected.

For each VLAN, the switch with the lowest numerical value of the bridge ID is elected as the root bridge. If all switches are configured with the default priority (32768), the switch with the lowest MAC address in the VLAN becomes the root bridge. The bridge priority value occupies the most significant bits of the bridge ID.

When you change the bridge priority value, you change the probability that the switch will be elected as the root bridge. Configuring a lower value increases the probability; a higher value decreases the probability.

The STP root bridge is the logical center of each spanning tree topology in a network. All paths that are not needed to reach the root bridge from anywhere in the network are placed in STP blocking mode.

BPDUs contain information about the transmitting bridge and its ports, including bridge and MAC addresses, bridge priority, port priority, and path cost. STP uses this information to elect the root bridge for the STP instance, to elect the root port leading to the root bridge, and to determine the designated port for each segment.

In the following figure, Switch A is elected as the root bridge because the bridge priority of all the switches is set to the default (32768) and Switch A has the lowest MAC address. However, due to traffic patterns, the number of forwarding ports, or link types, Switch A might not be the ideal root bridge. By increasing the priority (lowering the numerical value) of the ideal switch so that it becomes the root bridge, you force an STP recalculation to form a new spanning tree topology with the ideal switch as the root.

When the spanning tree topology is calculated based on default parameters, the path between source and destination end stations in a switched network might not be ideal. For instance, connecting higher-speed links to a port that has a higher number than the current root port can cause a root-port change. The goal is to make the fastest link the root port.

For example, assume that one port on Switch B is a fiber-optic link, and another port on Switch B (an unshielded twisted-pair [UTP] link) is the root port. Network traffic might be more efficient over the high-speed fiber-optic link. By changing the STP port priority on the fiber-optic port to a higher priority (lower numerical value) than the root port, the fiber-optic port becomes the new root port.

Rapid PVST+ is the IEEE 802.1w (RSTP) standard implemented per VLAN. A single instance of STP runs on each configured VLAN (if you do not manually disable STP). Each Rapid PVST+ instance on a VLAN has a single root switch. You can enable and disable STP on a per-VLAN basis when you are running Rapid PVST+.

Note	Rapid PVST+ is the default STP mode for the switch.

Rapid PVST+ uses point-to-point wiring to provide rapid convergence of the spanning tree. The spanning tree reconfiguration can occur in less than 1 second with Rapid PVST+ (in contrast to 50 seconds with the default settings in the 802.1D STP).

Note	Rapid PVST+ supports one STP instance for each VLAN.

Using Rapid PVST+, STP convergence occurs rapidly. Each designated or root port in the STP sends out a BPDU every 2 seconds by default. On a designated or root port in the topology, if hello messages are missed three consecutive times, or if the maximum age expires, the port immediately flushes all protocol information in the table. A port considers that it loses connectivity to its direct neighbor root or designated port if it misses three BPDUs or if the maximum age expires. This rapid aging of the protocol information allows quick failure detection. The switch automatically checks the PVID.

Rapid PVST+ provides for rapid recovery of connectivity following the failure of a network device, a switch port, or a LAN. It provides rapid convergence for edge ports, new root ports, and ports connected through point-to-point links as follows:

• Edge ports—When you configure a port as an edge port on an RSTP switch, the edge port immediately transitions to the forwarding state. (This immediate transition was previously a Cisco-proprietary feature named PortFast.) You should only configure on ports that connect to a single end station as edge ports. Edge ports do not generate topology changes when the link changes.

  Enter the spanning-tree port type interface configuration command to configure a port as an STP edge port.

  Note	We recommend that you configure all ports connected to a host as edge ports.

• Root ports—If Rapid PVST+ selects a new root port, it blocks the old root port and immediately transitions the new root port to the forwarding state.

• Point-to-point links—If you connect a port to another port through a point-to-point link and the local port becomes a designated port, it negotiates a rapid transition with the other port by using the proposal-agreement handshake to ensure a loop-free topology.

Rapid PVST+ achieves rapid transition to the forwarding state only on edge ports and point-to-point links. Although the link type is configurable, the system automatically derives the link type information from the duplex setting of the port. Full-duplex ports are assumed to be point-to-point ports, while half-duplex ports are assumed to be shared ports.

Edge ports do not generate topology changes, but all other designated and root ports generate a topology change (TC) BPDU when they either fail to receive three consecutive BPDUs from the directly connected neighbor or the maximum age times out. At this point, the designated or root port sends out a BPDU with the TC flag set. The BPDUs continue to set the TC flag as long as the TC While timer runs on that port. The value of the TC While timer is the value set for the hello time plus 1 second. The initial detector of the topology change immediately floods this information throughout the entire topology.

When Rapid PVST+ detects a topology change, the protocol does the following:

• Starts the TC While timer with a value equal to twice the hello time for all the non-edge root and designated ports, if necessary.

• Flushes the MAC addresses associated with all these ports.

The topology change notification floods quickly across the entire topology. The system flushes dynamic entries immediately on a per-port basis when it receives a topology change.

Note	The TCA flag is used only when the switch is interacting with switches that are running legacy 802.1D STP.

The proposal and agreement sequence then quickly propagates toward the edge of the network and quickly restores connectivity after a topology change.

Rapid PVST+ and 802.1w use all six bits of the flag byte to add the role and state of the port that originates the BPDU and the proposal and agreement handshake. The following figure shows the use of the BPDU flags in Rapid PVST+.

Another important change is that the Rapid PVST+ BPDU is type 2, version 2, which makes it possible for the switch to detect connected legacy (802.1D) bridges. The BPDU for 802.1D is version 0.

As shown in the following figure, Switch A is connected to Switch B through a point-to-point link, and all of the ports are in the blocking state. Assume that the priority of Switch A is a smaller numerical value than the priority of Switch B.

Switch A sends a proposal message (a configuration BPDU with the proposal flag set) to Switch B, proposing itself as the designated switch.

After receiving the proposal message, Switch B selects as its new root port the port from which the proposal message was received, forces all non-edge ports to the blocking state, and sends an agreement message (a BPDU with the agreement flag set) through its new root port.

After receiving the agreement message from Switch B, Switch A also immediately transitions its designated port to the forwarding state. No loops in the network can form because Switch B blocked all of its non-edge ports and because there is a point-to-point link between Switches A and B.

When Switch C connects to Switch B, a similar set of handshaking messages are exchanged. Switch C selects the port connected to Switch B as its root port, and both ends of the link immediately transition to the forwarding state. With each iteration of this handshaking process, one more network device joins the active topology. As the network converges, this proposal-agreement handshaking progresses from the root toward the leaves of the spanning tree.

The switch learns the link type from the port duplex mode: a full-duplex port is considered to have a point-to-point connection and a half-duplex port is considered to have a shared connection. You can override the default setting that is controlled by the duplex setting by entering the spanning-tree link-type interface configuration command.

This proposal/agreement handshake is initiated only when a non-edge port moves from the blocking to the forwarding state. The handshaking process then proliferates step-by-step throughout the topology.

The following table describes the protocol timers that affect the Rapid PVST+ performance.

Rapid PVST+ provides rapid convergence of the spanning tree by assigning port roles and learning the active topology. Rapid PVST+ builds upon the 802.1D STP to select the switch with the highest priority (lowest numerical priority value) as the root bridge. Rapid PVST+ then assigns one of these port roles to individual ports:

• Root port—Provides the best path (lowest cost) when the switch forwards packets to the root bridge.

• Designated port—Connects to the designated switch, which incurs the lowest path cost when forwarding packets from that LAN to the root bridge. The port through which the designated switch is attached to the LAN is called the designated port.

• Alternate port—Offers an alternate path toward the root bridge to the path provided by the current root port. An alternate port provides a path to another switch in the topology.

• Backup port—Acts as a backup for the path provided by a designated port toward the leaves of the spanning tree. A backup port can exist only when two ports are connected in a loopback by a point-to-point link or when a switch has two or more connections to a shared LAN segment. A backup port provides another path in the topology to the switch.

• Disabled port—Has no role within the operation of the spanning tree.

In a stable topology with consistent port roles throughout the network, Rapid PVST+ ensures that every root port and designated port immediately transition to the forwarding state while all alternate and backup ports are always in the blocking state. Designated ports start in the blocking state. The port state controls the operation of the forwarding and learning processes.

A port with the root or a designated port role is included in the active topology. A port with the alternate or backup port role is excluded from the active topology (see the following figure).

Propagation delays can occur when protocol information passes through a switched LAN. As a result, topology changes can take place at different times and at different places in a switched network. When a LAN port transitions directly from nonparticipation in the spanning tree topology to the forwarding state, it can create temporary data loops. Ports must wait for new topology information to propagate through the switched LAN before starting to forward frames.

Each LAN port on a software using Rapid PVST+ or MST exists in one of the following four states:

• Blocking—The LAN port does not participate in frame forwarding.

• Learning—The LAN port prepares to participate in frame forwarding.

• Forwarding—The LAN port forwards frames.

• Disabled—The LAN port does not participate in STP and is not forwarding frames.

When you enable Rapid PVST+, every port in the software, VLAN, and network goes through the blocking state and the transitory states of learning at power up. If properly configured, each LAN port stabilizes to the forwarding or blocking state.

When the STP algorithm places a LAN port in the forwarding state, the following process occurs:

• The LAN port is put into the blocking state while it waits for protocol information that suggests it should go to the learning state.

• The LAN port waits for the forward delay timer to expire, moves the LAN port to the learning state, and restarts the forward delay timer.

• In the learning state, the LAN port continues to block frame forwarding as it learns the end station location information for the forwarding database.

• The LAN port waits for the forward delay timer to expire and then moves the LAN port to the forwarding state, where both learning and frame forwarding are enabled.

A LAN port in the blocking state does not participate in frame forwarding.

A LAN port in the blocking state performs as follows:

• Discards frames received from the attached segment.

• Discards frames switched from another port for forwarding.

• Does not incorporate the end station location into its address database. (There is no learning on a blocking LAN port, so there is no address database update.)

• Receives BPDUs and directs them to the system module.

• Receives, processes, and transmits BPDUs received from the system module.

• Receives and responds to network management messages.

A LAN port in the learning state prepares to participate in frame forwarding by learning the MAC addresses for the frames. The LAN port enters the learning state from the blocking state.

A LAN port in the learning state performs as follows:

• Discards frames received from the attached segment.

• Discards frames switched from another port for forwarding.

• Incorporates the end station location into its address database.

• Receives BPDUs and directs them to the system module.

• Receives, processes, and transmits BPDUs received from the system module.

• Receives and responds to network management messages.

A LAN port in the forwarding state forwards frames. The LAN port enters the forwarding state from the learning state.

A LAN port in the forwarding state performs as follows:

• Forwards frames received from the attached segment.

• Forwards frames switched from another port for forwarding.

• Incorporates the end station location information into its address database.

• Receives BPDUs and directs them to the system module.

• Processes BPDUs received from the system module.

• Receives and responds to network management messages.

A LAN port in the disabled state does not participate in frame forwarding or STP. A LAN port in the disabled state is virtually nonoperational.

A disabled LAN port performs as follows:

• Discards frames received from the attached segment.

• Discards frames switched from another port for forwarding.

• Does not incorporate the end station location into its address database. (There is no learning, so there is no address database update.)

• Does not receive BPDUs from neighbors.

• Does not receive BPDUs for transmission from the system module.

The following table lists the possible operational and Rapid PVST+ states for ports and the corresponding inclusion in the active topology.

When the switch receives a proposal message on one of its ports and that port is selected as the new root port, Rapid PVST+ forces all other ports to synchronize with the new root information.

The switch is synchronized with superior root information received on the root port if all other ports are synchronized. An individual port on the switch is synchronized if either of the following applies:

• That port is in the blocking state.

• It is an edge port (a port configured to be at the edge of the network).

If a designated port is in the forwarding state and is not configured as an edge port, it transitions to the blocking state when the Rapid PVST+ forces it to synchronize with new root information. In general, when the Rapid PVST+ forces a port to synchronize with root information and the port does not satisfy any of the above conditions, its port state is set to blocking.

After ensuring that all of the ports are synchronized, the switch sends an agreement message to the designated switch that corresponds to its root port. When the switches connected by a point-to-point link are in agreement about their port roles, Rapid PVST+ immediately transitions the port states to the forwarding state. The sequence of events is shown in the following figure.

The software checks the consistency of the port role and state in the received BPDUs to detect unidirectional link failures that could cause bridging loops.

When a designated port detects a conflict, it keeps its role, but reverts to a discarding state because disrupting connectivity in case of inconsistency is preferable to opening a bridging loop.

The following figure illustrates a unidirectional link failure that typically creates a bridging loop. Switch A is the root bridge, and its BPDUs are lost on the link leading to Switch B. The 802.1w-standard BPDUs include the role and state of the sending port. With this information, Switch A can detect that Switch B does not react to the superior BPDUs it sends and that Switch B is the designated, not root port. As a result, Switch A blocks (or keeps blocking) its port, which prevents the bridging loop. The block is shown as an STP dispute.

The STP port path-cost default value is determined from the media speed and path-cost calculation method of a LAN interface. If a loop occurs, STP considers the port cost when selecting a LAN interface to put into the forwarding state.

You can assign lower cost values to LAN interfaces that you want STP to select first and higher cost values to LAN interfaces that you want STP to select last. If all LAN interfaces have the same cost value, STP puts the LAN interface with the lowest LAN interface number in the forwarding state and blocks other LAN interfaces.

On access ports, you assign the port cost by the port. On trunk ports, you assign the port cost by the VLAN; you can configure the same port cost to all the VLANs on a trunk port.

If a loop occurs and multiple ports have the same path cost, Rapid PVST+ considers the port priority when selecting which LAN port to put into the forwarding state. You can assign lower priority values to LAN ports that you want Rapid PVST+ to select first and higher priority values to LAN ports that you want Rapid PVST+ to select last.

If all LAN ports have the same priority value, Rapid PVST+ puts the LAN port with the lowest LAN port number in the forwarding state and blocks other LAN ports. The possible priority range is from 0 through 224 (the default is128), configurable in increments of 32. The software uses the port priority value when the LAN port is configured as an access port and uses the VLAN port priority values when the LAN port is configured as a trunk port.

In a network of Cisco switches connected through 802.1Q trunks, the switches maintain one instance of STP for each VLAN allowed on the trunks. However, non-Cisco 802.1Q switches maintain only one instance of STP for all VLANs allowed on the trunks.

When you connect a Cisco switch to a non-Cisco switch through an 802.1Q trunk, the Cisco switch combines the STP instance of the 802.1Q VLAN of the trunk with the STP instance of the non-Cisco 802.1Q switch. However, all per-VLAN STP information that is maintained by Cisco switches is separated by a cloud of non-Cisco 802.1Q switches. The non-Cisco 802.1Q cloud that separates the Cisco switches is treated as a single trunk link between the switches.

Rapid PVST+ can interoperate with switches that are running the legacy 802.1D protocol. The switch knows that it is interoperating with equipment running 802.1D when it receives a BPDU version 0. The BPDUs for Rapid PVST+ are version 2. If the BPDU received is an 802.1w BPDU version 2 with the proposal flag set, the switch sends an agreement message after all of the other ports are synchronized. If the BPDU is an 802.1D BPDU version 0, the switch does not set the proposal flag and starts the forward-delay timer for the port. The new root port requires twice the forward-delay time to transition to the forwarding state.

The switch interoperates with legacy 802.1D switches as follows:

• Notification—Unlike 802.1D BPDUs, 802.1w does not use TCN BPDUs. However, for interoperability with 802.1D switches, Cisco NX-OS processes and generates TCN BPDUs.

• Acknowledgement—When an 802.1w switch receives a TCN message on a designated port from an 802.1D switch, it replies with an 802.1D configuration BPDU with the TCA bit set. However, if the TC-while timer (the same as the TC timer in 802.1D) is active on a root port connected to an 802.1D switch and a configuration BPDU with the TCA set is received, the TC-while timer is reset.

This method of operation is required only for 802.1D switches. The 802.1w BPDUs do not have the TCA bit set.

• Protocol migration—For backward compatibility with 802.1D switches, 802.1w selectively sends 802.1D configuration BPDUs and TCN BPDUs on a per-port basis.

When a port is initialized, the migrate-delay timer is started (specifies the minimum time during which 802.1w BPDUs are sent), and 802.1w BPDUs are sent. While this timer is active, the switch processes all BPDUs received on that port and ignores the protocol type.

If the switch receives an 802.1D BPDU after the port migration-delay timer has expired, it assumes that it is connected to an 802.1D switch and starts using only 802.1D BPDUs. However, if the 802.1w switch is using 802.1D BPDUs on a port and receives an 802.1w BPDU after the timer has expired, it restarts the timer and starts using 802.1w BPDUs on that port.

Note	If you want all switches to renegotiate the protocol, you must restart Rapid PVST+.

Rapid PVST+ interoperates seamlessly with the IEEE 802.1s Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) standard. No user configuration is needed.