CCNA Exploration: LAN Switching and Wireless 

Chapter 5 Case Study

Objectives:

• Consolidate the knowledge of the STP concept and configuration

• Enforce the difference between STP port roles and STP Port states

Intro:

Ajax had a failure in one of its secondary trunk links which kept a relevant portion of the network with no
connectivity. After this problem, they decided to implement redundancy between the switches in order to
avoid the problem from happening again.

The Scenario:

After a quick look at Ajax network, you decide to connect a few more cables between the switches in
order to achieve some redundancy. Ajax’s updated topology is shown below. Because Ajax now has
redundant links between its switches, the spanning tree protocol is necessary to avoid layer 2 loops.

Topology:

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CCNA Exploration: LAN Switching and Wireless 
Chapter 5 Case Study

Using crossed cables, you connect SW2’s ports fa0/20 and 21 to SW3’s port fa0/20 and 21 respectively
and SW3’s port fa0/22 and 23 to SW4’s port fa0/22 and 23. You also connect SW1’s port fa0/16 to SW2’s
port fa0/22, SW1’s port fa0/17 to SW3’s port fa0/19 and SW1’s port fa0/18 to SW4’s fa0/21. All of those
links will work as a backup path to reach the root bridge and you configure all of them as trunk links. The
table below has the port mapping you created:

From: To:

SW1 fa0/16 SW2 fa0/22

SW1 fa0/17 SW3 fa0/19

SW1 fa0/18 SW4 fa0/21

SW2 fa0/20 SW3 fa0/20

SW2 fa0/21 SW3 fa0/21

SW3 fa0/22 SW4 fa0/22

SW3 fa0/23 SW4 fa0/23

Because SW1 is a better switch when it comes to processing power and amount of memory, you decide
to make it the root bridge of the tree. To ensure no other switch but SW1 will be elected root bridge, you
change SW1 priority. Since a different instance of SPT is created for each VLAN and you want SW1
acting as root bridge for all 3 VLANs, in SW1, you issue the same command for each VLAN. The
command used changes the bridge priority of SW1 to make it the root bridge for the specified VLANs.
The commands are listed below:

SW1# configure terminal

SW1(config)# spanning-tree vlan 10 root primary
SW1(config)# spanning-tree vlan 20 root primary
SW1(config)# spanning-tree vlan 30 root primary
SW1(config)# end

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CCNA Exploration: LAN Switching and Wireless 
Chapter 5 Case Study

Question 1:

In a switched LAN environment, the switch elected as root bridge is the switch with highest-priority bridge
ID (lowest numeric bridge ID value). Based on the structure of the bridge ID, is it correct to state that a
switch with priority set to 0 will always become the root bridge? Explain.

Answer: No. Even if a switch has its priority set to 0, another switch, which also had its priority set to 0,
could be elected root bridge if its MAC address was lower than the first switch’s. Cisco created a feature
called Root Guard to ensure a switch will always be the root bridge. For more information on Cisco root
guard, see:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk389/tk621/technologies_tech_note09186a00800ae96b.shtml

To ensure SW1 will be the root bridge, you connect the console cable to SW2, SW3 and SW4 and check
their SPT priorities. Since SW2, SW3 and SW4 SPT bridge priorities are set to the default value, SW1 will
become the root bridge.

Question 2:

What is the default bridge priority?

Answer: 32768

Once you ensured SW1 will be elected the root bridge, you decide to do some adjustments in order to
optimize SPT operation and network overall performance.

Because the ports connected to end devices under SW2, SW3 and SW4 won’t have any switches, loops
will not be created through such ports. Since no loops will be created, there is no point to have such ports
going through all SPT states before they can forward traffic. You connect to SW2, SW3 and SW4 and
configure all ports connected only to end devices with the spanning-tree portfast command.

SW2(config)# int ra fa0/1 – 15

SW2(config-if)# spanning-tree portfast
%Warning: portfast should only be enabled on ports connected to a single host.
Connecting hubs, concentrators, switches, bridges, etc. to this interface when
portfast is enabled, can cause temporary spanning tree loops. Use with CAUTION.

%Portfast has been configured on FastEthernet0/1 - 15 but will only

have effect when the interface is in a non-trunking mode.
SW2(config-if)# end

SW3(config)# int ra fa0/1 – 15

SW3(config-if)# spanning-tree portfast
%Warning: portfast should only be enabled on ports connected to a single host.
Connecting hubs, concentrators, switches, bridges, etc. to this interface when
portfast is enabled, can cause temporary spanning tree loops. Use with CAUTION.

%Portfast has been configured on FastEthernet0/1 - 15 but will only

have effect when the interface is in a non-trunking mode.
SW3(config-if)# end

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CCNA Exploration: LAN Switching and Wireless 
Chapter 5 Case Study

SW4(config)# int ra fa0/1 – 15

SW4(config-if)# spanning-tree portfast
%Warning: portfast should only be enabled on ports connected to a single host.
Connecting hubs, concentrators, switches, bridges, etc. to this interface when
portfast is enabled, can cause temporary spanning tree loops. Use with CAUTION.

%Portfast has been configured on FastEthernet0/1 - 15 but will only

have effect when the interface is in a non-trunking mode.
SW4(config-if)# end

Note: As shown on the output above, be careful when configuring ports as SPT portfast.

Verifying

You connect to SW1 and issue the sh spanning-tree vlan command to ensure it became the root
bridge for VLAN 10, 20 and 30. Notice that the priority value has changed from the default of 32768 to a
smaller value and SW1 is actually the root bridge.

SW1#show spanning vlan 10

VLAN0010
Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee
Root ID Priority 24596
Address 000f.90e2.1300
This bridge is the root

SW1#show spanning vlan 20

VLAN0020
Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee
Root ID Priority 24606
Address 000f.90e2.1300
This bridge is the root

SW1#show spanning vlan 30

VLAN0030
Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee
Root ID Priority 24606
Address 000f.90e2.1300
This bridge is the root

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CCNA Exploration: LAN Switching and Wireless 
Chapter 5 Case Study

You watch the switches and notice while SPT assign correct port roles to the switch ports. As expected,
since SW1 is the root bridge, all SW1 ports are playing the role of designated ports and are in the SPT
forwarding state.

SW4 has one port playing the role of root port (fa0/21) and one port playing the role of designate port
(fa0/22). The other SW4 ports took the Non-Designated port role and are in SPT blocking state.

SW3 has one root port (fa0/19) and 2 designated ports (fa0/20 and fa0/22). All other ports are non-
designated ports and are in blocking state.

As SW4, SW2 also has one root port (fa0/22) and one designated port (fa0/20) and all other port are non-
designated ports in blocking state.

Note: In some implementations of SPT, non-designated ports are called alternate port.

You watch port roles being assigned and ports going through SPT states while the switched LAN
converges.

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