Regions, legacy STP and RSTP switches, and the Common Spanning Tree (CST)

The IST instance and any MST instances in a region exist only within that region. Where a link crosses a boundary between regions (or between a region and a legacy STP or RSTP switch), traffic is forwarded or blocked as determined by the Common Spanning Tree (CST). The CST ensures that there is only one active path between any two regions, or between a region and a switch running STP and RSTP. (See the figure in MSTP structure.)