PARALLEL OPERATION OF RSTP (RAPID SPANNING TREE PROTOCOL) AND MRP (MEDIA REDUNDANCY PROTOCOL) AND SEGMENTATION/COUPLING

摘要

At least two different redundancy protocols are operated in parallel by network devices in an Ethernet network. Control is determined and assigned to one of two protocols to have total control over which ports in the network devices are active and which are blocked for transmission of user data and network data network traffic while allowing all control and monitor traffic to traverse the ring of network devices. Control and monitoring packets are transmitted by RSTP packets through all of the network devices in the ring while restricting the data ports of the network devices to transmit user data and data network traffic to the network devices connected in the line of the network devices. Parameters received in RSTP packets are collected from all of the network devices in the ring in order to determine which network device of the network devices is a virtual root bridge.