Associating vlans to mstis, Figure 29: cist and vlan guideline - example 1 – Allied Telesis AT-S63 User Manual

Page 241

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AT-S63 Management Software Features Guide

Section V: Spanning Tree Protocols

241

Associating VLANs to MSTIs

Allied Telesis recommends that you assign all VLANs on a switch to an
MSTI. You should not leave a VLAN assigned to just the CIST, including
the Default_VLAN. This is to prevent the blocking of a port that should be
in the forwarding state. The reason for this guideline is explained below.

An MSTP BPDU contains the instance to which the port transmitting the
packet belongs. By default, all ports belong to the CIST instance. So CIST
is included in the BPDU. If the port is a member of a VLAN that has been
assigned to another MSTI, that information is also included in the BPDU.

This is illustrated in Figure 29. Port 8 in switch A is a member of a VLAN
assigned to MSTI ID 7 while port 1 is a member of a VLAN assigned to
MSTI ID 10. The BPDUs transmitted by port 8 to switch B would indicate
that the port is a member of both CIST and MSTI 7, while the BPDUs from
port 1 would indicate the port is a member of the CIST and MSTI 10.

Figure 29. CIST and VLAN Guideline - Example 1

At first glance, it might appear that because both ports belong to CIST, a
loop would exist between the switches and that MSTP would block a port
to stop the loop. However, within a region, MSTI takes precedence over
CIST. When switch B receives a packet from switch A, it uses MSTI, not
CIST, to determine whether a loop exists. And because both ports on
switch A belong to different MSTIs, switch B determines that no loop
exists.

A problem can arise if you assign some VLANs to MSTIs while leaving
others just to CIST. The problem is illustrated in Figure 30. The network is
the same as the previous example. The only difference is that the VLAN
containing port 8 on Switch A has not been assigned to an MSTI, and
belongs only to CIST with its MSTI ID 0.

FAULT

RPS

MASTER

POWER

CLASS 1

LASER PRODUCT

STATUS

TERMINAL

PORT

1

3

5

7

9

11

2

4

6

8

10

12

13

15

17

19

21

23R

14

16

18

20

22

24R

AT-9424T/SP

Gigabit Ethernet Switch

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23R

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24R

23

24

L/A

D/C

D/C

L/A

D/C

L/A

1000 LINK / ACT

HDX / COL

FDX

10/100 LINK / ACT

PORT ACTIVITY

L/A

1000 LINK / ACT

SFP

SFP

24

SFP

23

FAULT

RPS

MASTER

POWER

CLASS 1

LASER PRODUCT

STATUS

TERMINAL

PORT

1

3

5

7

9

11

2

4

6

8

10

12

13

15

17

19

21

23R

14

16

18

20

22

24R

AT-9424T/SP

Gigabit Ethernet Switch

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

19

21

23R

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24R

23

24

L/A

D/C

D/C

L/A

D/C

L/A

1000 LINK / ACT

HDX / COL

FDX

10/100 LINK / ACT

PORT ACTIVITY

L/A

1000 LINK / ACT

SFP

SFP

24

SFP

23

Switch A

Switch B

Port 1

Port 8

BPDU Packet

BPDU Packet

Instances: CIST 0 and MSTI 10

Instances: CIST 0 and MSTI 7

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