A Performance Analysis of the Meshed Tree Protocol and the Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
Peter Willis · RIT Scholar Works (Rochester Institute of Technology) · 2019
Loop avoidance is essential in switched networks to avoid broadcast storms. Logical Spanning Trees are constructed on the physical meshed topologies to overcome this issue and preserve the stability of the network. However, during topology changes as the result of a failure, frame forwarding latency or frame loss is introduced when re-converging and identifying new spanning tree paths. The Meshed Tree algorithm (MTA) offers a new approach. Meshed Trees support multiple tree branches from a single root to cut down on re-convergence latency on link failures. A Meshed Tree Protocol (MTP) based on MTA is currently under development as an IEEE standard. MTP is evaluated for convergence delay and frame loss in comparison with Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) on the GENI testbed.