[c-nsp] Limits of STP/RSTP/REP?

[sthaug at nethelp.no]

> Wondering, what's the sensible limits of STP, RSTP, REP or any other
> spanning tree/ring protocol available on Cisco switches like 29, 35, 37
> or ME3400 series? I was told by a customer whom we try to sell some
> Cisco gear that beyond anything like 4 or 5 switches in a ring,
> recognition/recovery times of the ring would quickly go well beyond 10s
> on failure of a link ...

This may be only marginally relevant to your question, but here goes:
We have Extreme EAPS rings of up to 11 switches. Recovery times are
well under 1 second.

REP is similar to EAPS in several ways. I would expect Cisco to be
able to tell you about reasonable size of REP rings and expected
recovery times.

Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting, sthaug at nethelp.no