Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) Fundamentals

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) allows Ethernet LANs to have redundant links that can be used in case of link or switch failure. STP allows the design to use enough redundancy so that no single point of failure (SPOF) crashes the entire local network.

This course organizes the lessons into three sections. 

The first section answers the fundamental question around Spanning-Tree. Why do we need STP in the first place? What Spanning-tree does? And how STP works?

The second section presents some core concepts about how both STP works and how it builds the loop-free tree made of nodes (switches) and links so that no loops exist in a network. 

The third section compares the different versions of Spanning-tree such as Common STP and RSTP including how RSTP works much better than STP when reacting to changes.