Switch Meshing 
Operating Notes for Switch Meshing 
Spanning Tree Operation with Switch Meshing 
Using STP or RSTP with several switches and no switch meshing configured 
can result in unnecessarily blocking links and reducing available bandwidth. 
For example: 
Switch 
Mesh 
Domain 
Problem: 
STP enabled and creating 
traffic bottlenecks. 
Solution: 
Enabling meshing on links between 
switch ports removes STP blocks on 
meshed redundant links. 
Switch 
Server 
Switch 
Server 
Switch 
Switch 
Switch 
Switch 
Meshed 
Switch 
Server 
Meshed 
Switch 
Server 
Meshed 
Switch 
Meshed 
Switch 
Switch 
Switch 
=  STP, RSTP, or MSTP Blocking a Redundant Link 
Figure 7-17.  Example Using STP Without and With Switch Meshing 
If you enable STP, RSTP, or MSTP on any meshed switch, you should enable 
the same spanning-tree protocol on all switches in the mesh.  (That is, if you 
are going to use spanning-tree in a switch mesh, all switches in the mesh 
should be configured with the same type of spanning-tree: 802.1d/STP,  802.1w/ 
RSTP, or 802.1s/MSTP.)  Spanning-Tree interprets a meshed domain as a single 
link. However, on edge switches in the domain, STP and RSTP will manage 
non-meshed redundant links from other devices. For example: 
7-20