• Switch 1.2
• Product Overview
  • Technical Specifications
  • Supported SonicWall and 3rd party SFP and SFP+ Modules that can be used with SonicWall Switches
  • Physical Interface - 10 Port Switch
  • Physical Interface - 24 Port Switch
  • Physical Interface - 48 Port Switch
  • Physical Interface - 8 Port Switch
  • Management Interface
  • Connecting the Switch to a Network
  • Web Access
• System Management
  • System
    • Dashboard
    • Network
    • Administration
      • SSH Settings
    • System Information
    • User Management
    • Simple Network Management Protocol
      • Classic diagram of SonicWall Switch for SNMP Testing
      • Add View List
      • Add Target Params
      • Add Target Address
      • Add Notify Setting
      • SNMP Traps/Informs
      • How to configure SNMP on SonicWall Switch
      • SNMP supported OID’s in 1.2.0.1-2s
      • How to Configure SNMP/MIB Browser on Client PC
    • Address Resolution Protocol
      • ARP Table
      • ARP Statistics
    • Authentication
    • Firmware and Settings
    • DHCP Snooping
    • DHCP Relay
    • Time
  • Switching
    • Port Settings
      • Port Settings
        • Native VLAN
      • QoS Settings
        • Bandwidth Control
        • Storm Control
      • PoE
      • Security
        • 802.1X
      • ACL Binding
      • Advanced
    • Spanning Tree Protocol
      • Network Loops
      • Global Settings
      • MST Instance Settings
      • STP Port Statistics
    • Loopback Detection
    • Link Aggregation
      • Port Trunking
      • Link Aggregation Control Protocol Settings
      • Link Aggregation Control Protocol Timeout
    • Port Mirror
    • Jumbo Frames
    • MAC Address Table
      • Dynamic MAC Address
    • Link Layer Discovery Protocol
      • Local Device
      • Remote Device
    • IGMP Snooping
      • Global Settings
      • Group List
      • Router Settings
    • Multicast Filtering
    • Quality of Service
      • Class of Service Mapping
      • IP/DSCP Mapping
      • Class Mapping
        • Adding a Class Policy
      • Policy Mapping
    • Remote Network Monitoring
      • Stat List
      • Event List
      • Event Log Table
      • Statistics
      • Alarm List
      • History List
      • History Log Table
    • Port Statistics
  • Routing
  • Security
    • 802.1X Security
      • Mac Authentication Bypass
        • Behaviors and Restrictions
      • Global Settings
      • Port Settings
      • Authenticated Host
      • Port Statistics
    • Denial of Service
    • ACL Management
      • MAC ACL
      • MAC-Based ACE
      • IPv4 ACL
      • IPv4-Based ACE
  • VLAN
    • 802.1Q
    • Voice VLAN
      • OUI Settings
      • Port Settings
  • Logging
    • Global Settings
      • Local Settings
    • Remote Logging
    • Log Table
  • Diagnostics
    • Ping
    • Trace Route
    • Download required tech support files
• System Maintenance
• Switch Troubleshooting
  • Communication flow between Firewall and Switch before it get authenticated
• SonicWall Support
  • About This Document

Network Loops

Loops occur when alternate routes exist between hosts. Loops in an extended network can cause the Switch to forward traffic indefinitely, resulting in increased traffic and reducing network efficiency. Once the STP is enabled and configured, primary links are established and duplicated links are blocked automatically. The reactivation of the blocked links is also accomplished automatically. STP provides a tree topology and other Spanning tree versions supported include STP, Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP), and Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP). Please note that only one spanning tree can be active on the Switch at a time. The default setting is: MSTP.

Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) defined in IEEE 802.1s, enables multiple VLANs to be mapped to reduce the number of spanning-tree instances needed to support a large number of VLANs. If there is only one VLAN in the network, a single STP works appropriately.

If the network contains more than one VLAN however, the logical network configured by a single STP would work, but it becomes more efficient to use the alternate paths available by using an alternate spanning tree for different VLANs or groups of VLANs. MSTP (which is based on RSTP for fast convergence) is designed to support independent spanning trees based on VLAN groups. MSTP provides multiple forwarding paths for data traffic and enables load balancing.

STP and RSTP prevent loops from forming by ensuring that only one path exists between the end nodes in your network. RSTP is designed as a general replacement for the slower, legacy STP. RSTP is also incorporated into MSTP. With STP, convergence can take up to a minute to complete in a larger network. This can result in the loss of communication between various parts of the network during the convergence process so STP can subsequently can lose data packets during transmission.

RSTP on the other hand is much faster than STP. It can complete a convergence in seconds, so it greatly diminishes the possible impact the process can have on your network compared to STP. RSTP reduces the number of state changes before active ports start learning, pre- defining an alternate route that can be used when a node or port fails and retain the forwarding database for ports insensitive to changes in the tree structure when reconfiguration occurs.

Select whether to enable or disable the Spanning Tree function for the Switch and click Update to update the system settings.