Allied Telesis AT-S60 - Manual (Page 188)

AT-S60 Management Software User’s Guide
Section II: Local and Telnet Management 187
Path Costs and Port Costs
Once the Root Bridge has been selected, the bridges must determine if
the network contains redundant paths and, if one is found, they must
select a preferred path while placing the redundant paths in a backup or
blocking state.
Where there is only one path between a bridge and the root bridge, the
bridge is referred to as the designated bridge and the port through which
the bridge is communicating with the root bridge is referred to as the
root port.
If redundant paths exist, the bridges that are a part of the paths must
determine which path is the primary, active path, and which path(s) are
placed in the standby, blocking mode. This is accomplished by a
determination of path costs. The path offering the lowest cost to the root
bridge becomes the primary path and all other redundant paths are
placed into blocking state.
Path cost is determined through an evaluation of port costs. Every port
on a bridge participating in STP has a cost associated with it. The cost of
a port on a bridge is typically based on port speed. The faster the port,
the lower the port cost. The exception to this is the ports on the root
bridge, where all ports have a port cost of 0.
Path cost is simply the sum of the port costs between a bridge and the
root bridge.
Table 5 Bridge Priority Value Increments
Increment
Bridge
Priority
Increment
Bridge
Priority
0 0 8 32768
1 4096 9 36864
2 8192 10 40960
3 12288 11 45056
4 16384 12 49152
5 20480 13 53248
6 24576 14 57344
7 28672 15 61440