Westermo RedFox Series - Manual (Page 347)

Westermo OS Management Guide
Version 4.17.0-0
Chapter 16
Spanning Tree Protocol - RSTP
and STP
The spanning tree protocol (STP) and its successor rapid spanning tree protocol
(RSTP) are the standard protocols to support redundancy while avoiding broad-
cast storms in switched networks. WeOS supports RSTP with fall-back to STP
when connecting the switch to another device only capable of STP.
STP/RSTP does not provide the same convergence performance as FRNT, how-
ever, STP/RSTP can handle arbitrary switched topologies, while FRNT operates in
a ring structure. For information on FRNT, and coexistence between FRNT and
RSTP, see
chapter 14 .
RSTP is disabled at factory default.
16.1 Overview of RSTP/STP features
Table 16.1 provides a summary of available RSTP/STP features in WeOS. Further
descriptions of the spanning tree protocol and the available features are provided
in
sections 16.1.1 - 16.1.3 .
16.1.1 Spanning Tree Introduction
Loops in switched networks are dangerous, since packets can loop around forever
and jam the network - as opposed to IP and routed networks, Ethernet frames do
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