Summary: | Abstract In the substation automation applications the utility of Ethernet local area networks (LANs) that interconnects different network devices together has become so popular and has grown steadily, there is always an anxiety on how to protect against the event of a single link network failure? Though, the easiest way to be on the safest side is by the creation of more than one link between two network devices, having many paths between two network devices in the network establishes a loop (loops). A loop is very dangerous to have in data link layer where the frame doesn’t have TTL (time to live) counting down.[9] This can result in an endless loop in the entire LAN and put the network down [3]. To eliminate loop in Ethernet LAN with redundant link, we can use one of the data link layer protocol which is called STP (Spanning Tree Protocol). In the past STP was not so popular but today more and more enterprises are beginning to use the STP. But not only companies have found the Spanning Tree Protocol to be very interesting, other establishments like schools, hospitals, businesses etc have also found this a great reliable protocol to have. This thesis is focused on the study of how to create a redundancy link on the Skinnskatteberg council’s network and protecting loops by implementing the Spanning Tree Protocol on a fast growing council in the central region of Sweden. Actually the study is also useful to utilize in other LAN switched networks.
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