Now, in a small fraction of the time, we have four packets. The problem grows exponentially until the network bandwidth is saturated with a single broadcast request. Devices on both networks are experiencing large numbers of collisions. The network has become unusable. Spanning Tree Protocol Corporate networks have bridging loops similar to that of the Sprocket s corporate network.
Redundancy eliminates a single point of hardware failure in a network.
Whenever switch redundancy is present in a network, there is a loop. The trick here is to allow for multiple bridges and only allow for a singular path. Spanning tree root bridges in redundant fault-tolerant environments. This means the switch relies on MAC addresses for identification of network devices. A switch, essentially a complex bridge, uses bridging tables, which are collections of MAC addresses associated to bridge interfaces or, in the case of a switch, a port number.