| Business today has an increasing
reliance on data networks to deliver services required for business
operations. Many of these services now rely upon the data network to
provide inventory control, accounts receivable and payable, order
processing, and the many other aspects of running a business
efficiently. The need for timely and accurate data is driving the
demand for high network availability and reliability.
Most network administrators and
designers underestimate the importance of the Spanning-Tree Protocol
(STP). As routers became popular in the early 1990s, STP faded into
the background as a "less important protocol that just
worked." However, with the recent rise of switching technology,
Spanning Tree has once again become an important factor that can
have a tremendous impact on your network's performance. In fact, STP
often accounts for more than 50 percent of the configuration,
troubleshooting, and maintenance headaches in real-world campus
networks (especially if they are poorly designed). This chapter
covers the mechanics of the Spanning-Tree Protocol as it performs
its basic loop-prevention duties.
This chapter discusses techniques and
technologies within a campus network that are targeted at increased
network reliability. An overview of the technologies associated with
campus redundancy and the implementation of Cisco solutions to
ensure network availability is presented. Additionally, this chapter
covers the following topics:
- Spanning-Tree Protocol Operations
and Processes
- Spanning Tree in a VLAN
environment
- Scaling the Spanning-Tree Protocol
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