Smart Spanning Tree Bridging for Carrier Ethernets

Carrier Ethernet WAN transport services are taking off rapidly and the simplicity, ubiquity, and plug-and-play features of Ethernet are some key success factors. Originally, these transport services assumed the use of VLANs and Spanning Tree Protocols within Provider Bridge (PB) and Provider Backbone Bridge (PBB) networks. Because the existing Spanning Tree Protocols (STP, RSTP, and MSTP) were deemed inadequate for carrier networks, very recently, a new class of shortest path routing solutions have been introduced that avoid the use of spanning tree protocols in the core namely, Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) and Shortest Path Backbone Bridging (SPBB).