Prior to 802.1w, Cisco implemented a number of proprietary enhancements to 802.1D to improve convergence in a Layer 2 network. Which statement is correct?
A.
Only UplinkFast and BackboneFast are specified in 802.1w; PortFast must be manually configured.
B.
Only PortFast is specified in 802.1w; UplinkFast and BackboneFast must be manually configured.
C.
None of the proprietary Cisco enhancements are specified in 802.1w.
D.
PortFast, UplinkFast, and BackboneFast are specified in 802.1w.
Explanation:
Spanning-tree PortFast causes a spanning-tree port to enter the forwarding state immediately, bypassing the listening and learning states. You can use PortFast on switch ports connected to a single workstation or server to allow those devices to connect to the network immediately, rather than waiting for spanning tree to converge.
UplinkFast provides fast convergence after a spanning-tree topology change and achieves load balancing between redundant links using uplink groups. An uplink group is a set of ports (per VLAN), only one of which is forwarding at any given time. Specifically, an uplink group consists of the root port (which is forwarding) and a set of blocked ports, except for self-looping ports. The uplink group provides an alternate path in case the currently forwarding link fails.BackboneFast is initiated when a root port or blocked port on a switch receives inferior BPDUs from its designated bridge. An inferior BPDU identifies one switch as both the root bridge and the designated bridge. When a switch receives an inferior BPDU, it indicates that a link to which the switch is not directly connected (an indirect link) has failed (that is, the designated bridge has lost its connection to the root bridge). Under normal spanning-tree rules, the switch ignores inferior BPDUs for the configured maximum aging time, as specified by the agingtime variable of the set spantree maxage command.
The switch tries to determine if it has an alternate path to the root bridge. If the inferior BPDU arrives on a blocked port, the root port and other blocked ports on the switch become alternate paths to the root bridge. (Self-looped ports are not considered alternate paths to the root bridge.) If the inferior BPDU arrives on the root port, all blocked ports become alternate paths to the root bridge. If the inferior BPDU arrives on the root port and there are no blocked ports, the switch assumes that it has lost connectivity to the root bridge, causes the maximum aging time on the root to expire, and becomes the root switch according to normal spanning-tree rules.
If the switch has alternate paths to the root bridge, it uses these alternate paths to transmit a new kind of PDU called the Root Link Query PDU. The switch sends the Root Link Query PDU out all alternate paths to the root bridge. If the switch determines that it still has an alternate path to the root, it causes the maximum aging time on the ports on which it received the inferior BPDU to expire. If all the alternate paths to the root bridge indicate that the switch has lost connectivity to the root bridge, the switch causes the maximum aging times on the ports on which it received an inferior BPDU to expire. If one or more alternate paths can still connect to the root bridge, the switch makes all ports on which it received an inferior BPDU its designated ports and moves them out of the blocking state (if they were in blocking state), through the listening and learning states, and into the forwarding state.
I cannot make sense of this question.
Portfast functionality is called “edge port” in 802.1w.
Uplinkfast and Backbonefast are not used as they are replaced by the new 802.1w algorithm.
I can say C is wrong. Answer A seems to be wrong as well.
But what about the rest?