Hack the Route Start free Open app Switches and VLANs
Edge port
A spanning-tree port that faces a single host, so it forwards the instant the link is up — plus the guards that protect it.
Rapid spanning tree (802.1w) names each port's role — Root (the way to the root), Designated (the forwarding end of a segment), Alternate (a ready backup to the root, held discarding) — and keeps three states: Discarding, Learning, Forwarding. A port to one host is marked edge (Cisco PortFast): with no loop to fear it forwards at once (so a laptop gets DHCP immediately) and raises no topology change when it flaps. BPDU guard err-disables an edge port the moment a BPDU arrives — only a switch sends those, so one means a rogue; the port stays latched down until an operator re-enables it. BPDU filter makes the port neither send nor receive BPDUs, so the switch is silent on it. On a point-to-point link, proposal/agreement lets two switches bring a link to forwarding in about a second instead of waiting out the timers.