User`s guide

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network topology information to propagate throughout the network before starting to
forward packets. They must also wait for the packet lifetime to expire for BPDU
packets that were forwarded based on the old topology. The forward delay timer is
used to allow the network topology to stabilize after a topology change. In addition,
STP specifies a series of states a port must transition through to further ensure that a
stable network topology is created after a topology change.
Each port on a switch using STP exists is in one of the following five states:
 Blocking – the port is blocked from forwarding or receiving packets
 Listening – the port is waiting to receive BPDU packets that may tell the port to go
back to the blocking state
 Learning – the port is adding addresses to its forwarding database, but not yet
forwarding packets
 Forwarding – the port is forwarding packets
 Disabled – the port only responds to network management messages and must
return to the blocking state first
A port transitions from one state to another as follows:
 From initialization (switch boot) to blocking
 From blocking to listening or to disabled
 From listening to learning or to disabled
 From learning to forwarding or to disabled
 From forwarding to disabled
 From disabled to blocking
Figure 5-20 STP Port State Transitions
You can modify each port state by using management software. When you enable
STP, every port on every switch in the network goes through the blocking state and
then transitions through the states of listening and learning at power up. If properly
Blocking
Switch boot
Listening
Learning
Forwarding
Disabled