Dell Force10 Interoperability Guide

Dell Networking
Figure 6 : Catalyst 6509 Configuration PVST+
Convergence Test:
1. Shutdown link between S4810_2 (Te0/47) and Catalyst 6509 (Te1/1).
Results:
IXIA traffic resumes in less than 2 seconds on link 0/46 on S4810_2. The blocking port moves to the
forwarding state as expected. This is because no interaction is needed with another switch, i.e. no
BPDU exchanged is needed.
2. Restore previous shutdown link between the S4810_2 and the Cisco Cat 6509.
Results:
IXIA traffic resumes 30 seconds later. This is as expected since the link between the S4810_2 and the
Cisco Catalyst 6509 go through the “listening” and “learning” states before moving onto the
“forwarding” state. Each state lasts 15 seconds and thus the 30 second traffic loss.
Note: PVST (FTOS) and RPVST+ (IOS) configuration was also tested and the results were identical to
that of PVST (FTOS) and PVST+ (IOS).
RSTP and RPVST+
Using the same test setup, RSTP and RPVST+ were enabled on the respective switches. For this
particular configuration, port 0/47 on S4810_2 assumes the alternate role and discarding status after
spanning tree settles down.
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