MSTP features
Developed based on IEEE 802.1s, MSTP overcomes the limitations of STP and RSTP. In addition to supporting rapid network convergence, it provides a better load sharing mechanism for redundant links by allowing data flows of different VLANs to be forwarded along separate paths.
MSTP provides the following features:
MSTP divides a switched network into multiple regions, each of which contains multiple spanning trees that are independent of one another.
MSTP supports mapping VLANs to spanning tree instances by means of a VLAN-to-instance mapping table. MSTP can reduce communication overheads and resource usage by mapping multiple VLANs to one instance.
MSTP prunes a loop network into a loop-free tree, which avoids proliferation and endless cycling of packets in a loop network. In addition, it supports load balancing of VLAN data by providing multiple redundant paths for data forwarding.
MSTP is compatible with STP and RSTP.