User`s manual

after a topology change. This is specified in IEEE 802.1w. In 2004, 802.1w is

included into 802.1D-2004 version. This switch supports both RSTP and STP (all

switches that support RSTP are also backward compatible with switches that

support only STP).

Bridge Configuration

Bridge Address: This shows the switch’s MAC address.

Priority (0-61440): RSTP uses bridge ID to determine the root bridge, the bridge

with the highest bridge ID becomes the root bridge. The bridge ID is composed of

bridge priority and bridge MAC address. So that the bridge with the highest

priority becomes the highest bridge ID. If all the bridge ID has the same priority,

the bridge with the lowest MAC address will then become the root bridge.

Note: The bridge priority value must be in multiples of 4096. A device with a

lower number has a higher bridge priority. Ex: 4096 is higher than 32768.

Note: The Web GUI allows user select the priority number directly. This is the

convenient of the GUI design. When you configure the value through the CLI or

SNMP, you may need to type the value directly. Please follow the n x 4096 rules

for the Bridge Priority.

Max Age (6-40): Enter a value from 6 to 40 seconds here. This value represents

the time that a bridge will wait without receiving Spanning Tree Protocol

configuration messages before attempting to reconfigure.

If the switch is not the root bridge, and if it has not received a hello message

from the root bridge in an amount of time equal to Max Age, then the switch will

reconfigure itself as a root bridge. Once two or more devices on the network are

recognized as a root bridge, the devices will renegotiate to set up a new spanning

tree topology.

Hello Time (1-10): Enter a value from 1 to 10 seconds here. This is a periodic

timer that drives the switch to send out BPDU (Bridge Protocol Data Unit) packet

to check current STP status.

The root bridge of the spanning tree topology periodically sends out a “hello”

message to other devices on the network to check if the topology is “healthy”.

The “hello time” is the amount of time the root has waited during sending hello

messages.

Forward Delay Time (4-30): Enter a value between 4 and 30 seconds. This value

is the time that a port waits before changing from Spanning Tree Protocol

learning and listening states to forwarding state.

This is the amount of time the switch will wait before checking to see if it should