Spanning Tree Protocol
Once a proprietary protocol from DEC, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) was standardized and blessed by the IEEE specification, 802.1d. STP allows networks to maintain a level of redundancy while disabling the detrimental side effects that can occur such as broadcast storms. Enabled by default on most switches, STP forms noncircular (no looping) paths throughout the internetwork by performing an election and basing calculations on that election. These calculations dictate
which ports should remain in a nonforwarding (known as blocking) state to eliminate redundant loops that can cause broadcast storms. STP also can react to changes in the switched network to ensure that the redundant links may be used in the event of a topology change such as a link going down. The following sections explain exactly how this remarkable protocol operates behind the scenes in a LAN.
EXAM ALERT
Remember that STP is standardized by the IEEE 802.1d specification and is used to prevent switching loops in a switched network.
Root Bridge
As previously mentioned, STP performs an election in the switched topology. The winner of this election serves as the base of all calculations and ultimately becomes the root to the spanning tree. Conveniently, this elected bridge or switch is called the root bridge. From the root bridge, noncircular branches extend throughout the switched network like those of a tree—a spanning tree.
NOTE
Don’t let the term “root bridge” confuse you. When the 802.1d specification was drafted for STP, it was referred to as a “root bridge” because bridges were the prominent devices at the time. In modern times, it can just as easily be a switch.
So how does this election take place? You can rule out voting because each bridge or switch believes itself to be the root bridge at startup. The deciding factor on who becomes the root bridge is something referred to as the Bridge ID. The Bridge ID comprises two components:
- Priority: This is an arbitrary number from 0 to 61440, which can be administratively set in increments of 4096. The default value for priority is 32768, or 8000 in hex.
- MAC address: The 48-bit MAC address of the switch itself. The device with the lowest Bridge ID becomes the root bridge. If a new switch or bridge is added with a lower Bridge ID to the switched network, a new election takes place, and that switch ultimately becomes the new root bridge for the switched network. Consider the example shown in Figure 13.4. Notice that all switches have their default priority value of 32768 in their Bridge IDs. Thus, the lowest MAC address ultimately dictates who will win the election. Because Switch A has the lowest MAC address in the switched network, it will be the root bridge.
EXAM ALERT
Be prepared to be able to determine which switch is the root bridge, given a topology diagram of a switched LAN.
Because this election process occurs automatically with bridges and switches, it is highly advised that you change your priority in a robust and reliable switch in your internetwork as opposed to letting this election occur by chance. This is especially true because manufacturers choose the MAC address, and a lower MAC address could very well mean an old or low-end switch or bridge, which might not be the best choice for your root bridge. How to manually set the priority is discussed later in this chapter.
These Bridge IDs are advertised to each other through Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs). These messages are sent as multicasts every two seconds by the root bridge out its interfaces to other switches on adjoining segments who, in turn, forward them on to other connected switches. In addition, these messages also contain the Bridge ID of the root bridge in every update that is sent. As long as you are receiving BPDUs that contain a higher Bridge ID than your Bridge ID, you will remain the root bridge (because all devices assume they are the root at startup).
Root Ports
In addition to the local bridge ID and the root bridge ID, BPDUs contain information that helps switches perform calculations to decide which ports should be forwarding and which should be blocking to create a loop-free switched network. The key to this calculation lies within the cumulative cost back to the root bridge. Although it sounds as if these Cisco switches are keeping track of how much you paid for them, this is not what is meant when you use the term “cost.” The cost is actually an inverse of the bandwidth for each link segment. Because it is the inverse, the lower the cumulative cost back to the root bridge, the faster the path is. Table 13.1 lists the standard costs used today in switches. It is possible to change these values administratively if you want to control which link becomes the best path to the root bridge.
After the root bridge is determined, each nonroot switch or bridge forms an association back to the root bridge based on the lowest cumulative path cost back to the root. Whichever interface has the fastest route to the root bridge automatically becomes a forwarding port called the root port.
NOTE
The root port is determined for the entire switch. Thus, each switch should contain only one root port back to the root bridge.
The root bridge advertises a root path cost of 0 to Switches B and D. As the BPDU enters their interfaces, they add the cost value of that interface and advertise that to any adjacent switches on other segments. Every nonroot bridge determines its fastest path back to the root by looking at these BPDUs that it receives from other switches. For instance, Switch B knows that going out of the top segment back to the root has a cost of 4, and going through Switch C has a cost of 42. Because the top segment has the lowest cumulative cost, that becomes the root port for Switch B. What would happen if there were a tie in the root path cost? For instance, Switch C has two equal-cost paths of 23 back to the root bridge through Switch B and Switch D. In the event of a tie, the following are calculated to determine the root port:
- The port with a switch advertising the lowest Bridge ID.
- If the same Bridge ID (parallel links to the same switch), the lowest port priority is used. The port priority is an arbitrary number assigned to an interface that can be administratively set to choose one link over another. The default value is 128.
- If the same port priority, the ultimate tiebreaker is the lowest interface number—for example, Fast Ethernet 0/1 over Fast Ethernet 0/6, because the links are identical.
EXAM ALERT
In the event of equal path costs, the lowest Bridge ID is the first tiebreaker.
Figure 13.5 expands on the switched networking example to include the path costs.
Designated Ports
After every switch has determined its root port, the switches and bridges determine which port is to become the designated port for every segment that connects the two switches. As the name states, the designated port is the port on each interconnecting segment that is designated to forward traffic from that segment to another segment back to the root bridge. This too is determined through a calculation of the fastest way back to the root port. In the case of a tie, the same decision criteria applies to designated ports as root ports as described earlier.
In Figure 13.6, the designated ports have been calculated based on which switch is advertising the lowest cumulative cost back to the root on each segment. For instance, the BPDUs from Switch B to Switch C are advertising a root path cost of 19, whereas the BPDU being sent from Switch C to Switch B is advertising 38. Because Switch B has the lower root path cost, that is the designated port for that segment.
Blocked Ports
To this point, the discussion has focused on how to determine which ports will be forwarding traffic in a switched network. Yet to be addressed is the original point of STP, which is to remove any potential switching loops. To remove potential switching loops, switches and bridges keep any port that is not a root or designated port in a blocked state. Keep in mind that a blocked state is not disabled (shut down); the interface is just not participating in forwarding any data. Blocked interfaces still receive BPDUs from other switches to react to any changes in the topology
EXAM ALERT
Keep in mind for the exam that a blocked interface still receives BPDUs from other switches.
In Figure 13.7, notice that all the root ports have been elected, as well as the designated ports for each segment. Notice on the segment between Switch C and Switch D that a port connect ed to Switch C is not a root port or a designated port. This port blocks user data to ensure that a switching loop does not occur and expose the network to broadcast storms. This also means that any devices connected to Switch C sending Ethernet data to any device connected to Switch D will ultimately go through Switch B, and then Switch A, to finally arrive at Switch D.
Challenge
To ensure your understanding of STP, this challenge steps you through the scenario illustrated in Figure 13.8.
All switches believe themselves to be the root bridge at startup. After sending their BPDUs, which
switch remains the root bridge, and why?
- Every nonroot bridge determines its root ports. Which interfaces become root ports based on the election result?
- Every segment must have a designated port to use to forward traffic onto other segments. Which interfaces on the three segments will be designated ports?
- One port should remain that is not designated or a root port. In what state will this port be?
Challenge Answer
Figure 13.9 displays the end result of the STP election and calculation. Switch C becomes the root bridge in this design because the default priority was administratively changed in this design to 4096, giving Switch C the lowest Bridge ID. Because Switch A and Switch B are nonroot bridges, they must calculate their root ports based on the lowest cumulative cost back to the root bridge. For each segment, the switch with the lowest root path cost will be the designated port. Because Switch C’s interface on the lower segment is not a root or designated port, that interface will be blocking.
Port State Transitions
You now know how STP removes switching loops in your switched LAN by electing a root bridge and calculating which ports should forward based on the lowest root path cost. However, as explained earlier, STP must be able to react to topology changes, such as a segment or switch going down, to ensure the redundant design is put to good use. When this type of change occurs, ports that were once in a blocking state could quite possibly transition to a forwarding state.
If devices were to immediately transition from a blocking state to a forwarding state, they could easily cause loops in the network because the topology change did not have a chance to propagate throughout the entire switched network. To remedy this dilemma, STP transitions into two intermediate states before moving to a forwarding role. In these transitionary states, the switch ensures that enough time has transpired to propagate the changes, and it undergoes a pre-forwarding routine to ensure that it will know where to forward the data when the interface is forwarding. Table 13.2 displays, in order, the possible STP states, their functions, and the time it takes to transition out of each state.
It may initially take the switch 20 seconds to start the transition process to the listening stage because that is the default time limit that STP uses to consider a neighbor switch to be down. In other words, if a switch stops hearing 10 BPDUs (equal to 20 seconds) from an adjoining switch or bridge, it considers that device to be dead and must react to the new topology. This
20-second timer is known as the max age timer.
When a topology change occurs in the network, a nonroot switch sends a specific BPDU called a Topology Change Notification (TCN) out its root port back to the root bridge. This BPDU is one of the only times that a BPDU does not originate from the root bridge. As soon as the root bridge finally receives that notification, it broadcasts a special BPDU to all the
switches in the network to start aging out old MAC entries in their CAM tables after about eight times faster (default is 300 seconds). At that point, the switches start rebuilding their CAM tables to reflect the new topology and forward frames accordingly. The listening and learning states wait 15 seconds each by default, but can be administratively changed if you have a relatively small switched network. These 15-second intervals are commonly referred to as forward delays because they delay the transition to a forwarding state. It is important to consider that it could take up to 50 seconds for an interface to transition to a forwarding state when the topology changes. Consequently, no data is transferred in those 50 seconds—which in the networking world is about 10 phone calls of complaining end users.
EXAM ALERT
An STP topology change could take up to 50 seconds.
The max age and forward delay timers are based on a default network diameter of seven switches including the root bridge. Diameter (in switching terms) refers to the number of bridge or switches between any two hosts. If your network is, for instance, only a diameter of 2, you can decrease these timers because it doesn’t take as long to propagate a change in the topology. Another benefit of STP is that these timers are ultimately dictated by the root bridge. Thus, to change the timers, you have to configure the change on only the root bridge, and it gets propagated to the other switches. This change could possibly backfire and cause switching loops in instances when you add more switches to the network and forget to change the timers. The next section discusses some safer alternatives to speed up the convergence time of STP when a topology change occurs.