As you have seen so far, the
implementation of a building-block approach and hierarchical model
has many advantages, including redundancy, scalability, loop-free
topologies, fast convergence, and load balancing. The examples in
Figures -
illustrate these advantages.
In the sample network, we have two
buildings that have an access switch on each floor and redundant
connections to a distribution-layer switch. Each distribution-layer
switch has redundant connections into the core of the network.
In Figure ,
notice the flow of traffic from switch M to switch P. Suppose there
is a port failure in the access switch. Notice in Figure
how the switch immediately chooses an alternate path. In Figure ,
suppose the link between the distribution switch and the core switch
fails. As you can see, the switches will choose an alternate path
through the core. In the following chapters you will learn how to
configure these behaviors on the switch.
|