Mixed Stp And Rstp Networks - Allied Telesis AT-8100L/8 User Manual

AT-8100 Switch Command Line User's Guide

Mixed STP and RSTP Networks

RSTP IEEE 802.1w is fully compliant with STP IEEE 802.1d. A network
can have both protocols. If both RSTP and STP are present in a network,
they operate together to create a single spanning tree domain. Given this,
if you decide to activate spanning tree on the switch, there is no reason not
to use RSTP, even if the other switches are running STP. The switch
combines its RSTP with the STP on the other switches by monitoring the
traffic on the ports for BPDU packets. Ports that receive RSTP BPDU
packets operate in RSTP mode while ports receiving STP BPDU packets
operate in STP mode.
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