Understanding Switch Port Transition States in RSTP (802.1w)
Question
Aside from discarding, which two states does the switch port transition through while using RSTP (802.1w)? (Choose two.)
Answers
Explanations
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D. E.DE
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/lan-switching/spanning-tree-protocol/24062-146.htmlRapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) is an improvement over the original Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and is defined in the IEEE 802.1w standard. RSTP allows for faster convergence times by reducing the amount of time it takes for a switch to transition from one state to another.
When a switch port first comes up, it begins in a blocking state where it does not forward or receive data. This state is called the Blocking state. While in the Blocking state, the switch will listen for BPDUs (Bridge Protocol Data Units) to learn about the network topology. During this time, the switch will not learn MAC addresses or forward traffic.
Once the switch has learned about the network topology and determined that it can safely transition to the next state, it will move to the Learning state. In the Learning state, the switch will start to learn MAC addresses of devices on the network by inspecting the source addresses of incoming frames. However, the switch will not forward data frames to the network during this state.
After the Learning state, the switch will move to the Forwarding state. In this state, the switch is fully operational, and data frames are forwarded to the network. The switch will continue to listen for BPDUs in this state to ensure that the network topology has not changed.
In RSTP, the Blocking and Forwarding states remain the same as in STP. However, the Listening and Learning states have been combined into a single state called the Discarding state. This state is used to provide a faster transition to the Forwarding state, reducing the amount of time it takes for a switch port to become fully operational.
Therefore, the correct answers to the question are:
C. listening - While RSTP combines the listening and learning states into a single Discarding state, the term listening is still commonly used to describe the Discarding state in RSTP.
D. learning - While RSTP combines the listening and learning states into a single Discarding state, the term learning is still commonly used to describe the process of the switch learning MAC addresses during the Discarding state.
