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Rapid Spanning-Tree (RSTP)

Nowadays we see more and more routing in our networks. Routing protocols like OSPF and
EIGRP are much faster than spanning-tree when they have to deal with changes in the
network. To keep up with the speed of these routing protocols another !avor of spanning-tree
was created…rapid spanning-tree.

Rapid spanning-tree is not a revolution of the original spanning-tree but an evolution. Behind
the scenes some things have been changed to speed up the process, con"guration-wise it’s
the same as what you have seen so far. I will refer to the original spanning-tree as “classic
spanning-tree”.

Let’s dive into rapid spanning-tree and we’ll see what the di#erences are with the classic
spanning-tree. Take a look at the picture below:
Remember the port states of spanning-tree? We have a blocking, listening, learning and
forwarding port state. This is the "rst di#erence between spanning-tree and rapid spanning-
tree. Rapid spanning-tree only has three port states:

Discarding
Learning
Forwarding

You already know about learning and forwarding but discarding is a new port state. Basically
it combines the blocking and listening port state. Here’s a nice overview:

Classic Rapid Port active in Learns MAC

Spanning-Tree Spanning-Tree topology? addresses?

Blocking Discarding No No

Listening Discarding Yes No

Learning Learning Yes Yes

Forwarding Forwarding Yes Yes

Do you remember all the other port roles that spanning-tree has? Let’s do a little review and
I’ll show you what is di#erent for rapid spanning-tree:

The switch with the best bridge ID (priority + MAC address) becomes the root bridge. The
other switches (non-root) have to "nd the shortest cost path to the root bridge. This is the
root port. There’s nothing new here, this works exactly the same for rapid spanning-tree. The
next step is to select the designated ports:
On each segment there can be only one designated port or we’ll end up with a loop. The port
will become the designated port if it can send the best BPDU. SW1 as a root bridge will always
have the best ports so all of interfaces will be designated. The fa0/16 interface on SW2 will be
the designated port in my example because it has a better bridge ID than SW3. There’s still
nothing new here compared to the classic spanning-tree. The interfaces that are left will be
blocked:
SW3 receives better BPDUs on its fa0/16 interface from SW2 and thus it will be blocked. This is
the alternate port and it’s still the same thing for rapid spanning-tree. Let me show you a new
example with a port state that is new for rapid spanning-tree:
Here is a new port for you, take a look at the fa0/17 interface of SW2. It’s called a backup port
and it’s new for rapid spanning-tree. You are very unlikely to see this port on a production
network though. Between SW2 and SW3 I’ve added a hub. Normally (without the hub in
between) both fa0/16 and fa0/17 would be designated ports.

Because of the hub the fa0/16 and fa0/17 interface on SW2 are now in the same collision
domain. Fa0/16 will be elected as the designated port and fa0/17 will become the backup
port for the fa0/16 interface. The reason that SW2 sees the fa0/17 interface as a backup port
is because it receives its own BPDUs on the fa0/16 and fa0/17 interfaces and understands that
it has two connections to the same segment. If you remove the hub the fa0/16 and fa0/17 will
both be designated ports just like the classic spanning-tree.

Something else that is di#erent is the BPDU, take a look:

The BPDU is di#erent for rapid spanning-tree. In the classic spanning-tree the !ags "eld only
had two bits in use:

Topology change.
Topology change acknowledgment.

All bits of the !ag "eld are now used. The role of the port that originates the BPDU will be
added by using the port role "eld, it has the following options:

Unknown
Alternate / Backup port.
Root port.
Designated port.

This new BPDU is called a version 2 BPDU. Switches running the old version of spanning-tree
will drop this new BPDU version. In case you are wondering…rapid spanning-tree and the old
spanning are compatible! Rapid spanning-tree has a way of dealing with switches running
the older spanning-tree version.

Let’s walk through the other stu# that has been changed:

BPDUs are now sent every hello time. Only the root bridge generated BPDUs in the classic
spanning-tree and those were relayed by the non-root switches if they received it on their root
port. Rapid spanning-tree works di#erently…all switches generate BPDUs every two seconds
(hello time). This is the default hello time but you can change it.
The classic spanning-tree uses a max age timer (20 seconds) for BPDUs before they are
discarded. Rapid spanning-tree works di#erently! BPDUs are now used as a keepalive
mechanism similar to what routing protocols like OSPF or EIGRP use. If a switch misses three
BPDUs from a neighbor switch it will assume connectivity to this switch has been lost and it
will remove all MAC addresses immediately.

Rapid spanning tree will accept inferior BPDUs. The classic spanning tree ignores them. Does
this ring a bell? This is pretty much the backbone fast feature of classic spanning-tree.

Transition speed (convergence time) is the most important feature of rapid spanning tree. The
classic spanning tree had to walk through the listening and learning state before it would
move an interface to the forwarding state, this took 30 seconds with the default timers. The
classic spanning tree was based on timers.

Rapid spanning doesn’t use timers to decide whether an interface can move to the
forwarding state or not. It will use a negotiation mechanism for this. I’ll show you how this
works in a bit.

Do you remember portfast? If we enable portfast while running the classic spanning tree it will
skip the listening and learning state and put the interface in forwarding state right away.
Besides moving the interface to the forwarding state it will also not generate topology
changes when the interface goes up or down. We still use portfast for rapid spanning tree but
it’s now referred to as an edge port.

Rapid spanning tree can only put interfaces in the forwarding state really fast on edge ports
(portfast) or point-to-point interfaces. It will take a look at the link type and there are only
two link types:

Point-to-point (full duplex)

Shared (half duplex)

Normally we are using switches and all our interfaces are con"gured as full duplex, rapid
spanning tree sees these interfaces as point-to-point. If we introduce a hub to our network
we’ll have half duplex which is seen as a shared interface to rapid spanning-tree.

Let’s take a close look at the negotiation mechanism that I described earlier:
Let me describe the rapid spanning tree synchronization mechanism by using the picture
above. SW1 on top is the root bridge. SW2, SW3 and SW4 are non-root bridges.

As soon as the link between SW1 and SW2 comes up their interfaces will be in blocking mode.
SW2 will receive a BPDU from SW1 and now a negotiation will take place called sync:
After SW2 received the BPDU from the root bridge it immediately blocks all its non-edge
designated ports. Non-edge ports are the interfaces that connect to other switches while
edge ports are the interfaces that have portfast con"gured. As soon as SW2 blocks its non-
edge ports the link between SW1 and SW2 will go into forwarding state. SW2 will now do the
following:
SW2 will also perform a sync operation with both SW3 and SW4 so they can quickly move to
the forwarding state.

Are you following me so far? The lesson to learn here is that rapid spanning tree uses this
sync mechanism instead of the “timer-based” mechanism that the classic spanning tree
uses (listening > learning > forwarding). I’m going to show you what this looks like on real
switches in a bit. Let’s take a closer look at the sync mechanism, let’s look at what happens
exactly between SW1 and SW2:
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 Unit 1: Introduction
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Unit 2: PVST (Per VLAN Spanning
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At "rst the interfaces will be blocked until they receive a BPDU from each other. At this
Miscellaneous
Unit 3: Rapid Spanning-Tree
moment SW2 will "gure out that SW1 is the root bridge because it has the best BPDU
Rapid Spanning-Tree
information. The sync mechanism will start because SW1 will set the proposal bit in the !ag
Legacy
Rapid Spanning-Tree
"eld of the BPDU. When SW2 receives the proposal it has to do something with it:
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SW2 will block all its non-edge interfaces and will start the synchronization towards SW3 and
SW4, once this is done SW2 will let SW1 know about this:
Once SW2 has its interfaces in sync mode it will let SW1 know about this by sending an
agreement. This agreement is a copy of the proposal BPDU where the proposal bit has
been switched o# and the agreement bit is switched on. The fa0/14 interface on SW2 will now
go into forwarding mode. When SW1 receives the agreement here’s what happens:

Once SW1 receives the agreement from SW2 it will put its fa0/14 interface in forwarding mode
immediately.

What about the fa0/16 and fa0/19 interface on SW2?

The exact same sync mechanism will take place now on these interfaces. SW2 will send a
proposal on its fa0/16 and fa0/19 interfaces towards SW3 and SW4. SW3 and SW4 will send an
agreement:

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Forum Replies

raedharbi

Thank you very much

ReneMolenaar

You are welcome Raed!

michmoor

Wow. Excellent lesson. Very clear and to the point. I am de"netly enjoying this site and learning.
Excellent refresher cource !
Please keep up the great work. BTW…Yes I am recommonding this site.

ReneMolenaar

Glad to hear you like it!

rvmcinnis

Excellent explanation!

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