Week 3 - The Unsung Hero

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    Networks need redundancy to prevent outages; however, too many redundant connections can cause a loop. This loop will send data endlessly around the network until bandwidth is completely used up and the network crashes. To prevent this, the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) was created. It stops loops by blocking unnecessary paths while keeping the best routes open to traffic flow. Because of this, STP is usually on by default.

    STP works well, but it can be slow to react to changes in the network. It can take up to a minute to fix. During an outage, a minute can seem like an eternity when you need to get back online. Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) speeds up the convergence times, which restores network connectivity in seconds. 

    Without STP, networks could be rendered useless because of their redundancies. It is the unsung hero and is sometimes overlooked despite how crucial it is for keeping data flowing smoothly.

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