stp and diameter

[sarahr202]

Hi everybody.

I am little confused as to how to determine the diameter of a switched network.

For e.g my one book defines diameter with in the context of stp as maximum number of  switches a frame has to travel on its way to from source  to destination.

Other book describes it as a maximum number of switches from root bridge.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

thanks and have a nice week.

[Jan Hrnko · Accepted solution]

Hi Sarah,

I believe that the diameter regarding STP is the value of maximum bridges between any two end stations (PCs for instance), so the first one is right.

I believe that the timers in STP are designed for convergence - to be sure that no more changes occures after STP is done. But in the start, you cannot tell which device will be the root bridge if you are not in control of all the bridges. It would be unreasonable to count this value in the second manner desribed.

Thank you and have a nice week!

Best regards,

Jan

[Peter Paluch · Accepted solution]

Hi Sarah,

I agree with Jan. It has always been my understanding that the network diameter is defined as the maximum number of switches the traffic between two end devices is required to traverse.

I guess we should keep an eye on Jan on these forums - clearly he's got a huge potential.

Best regards,

Peter