CompTIA Network+ Practice Test

What significant improvement does RSTP offer over traditional STP?

1. Increased packet size handling

2. Faster convergence time

3. More complex configuration options

4. Support for multicast traffic

The correct answer is: Faster convergence time

Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) is designed specifically to enhance the performance of the original Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) by addressing one of the major limitations of STP: the speed at which it can converge after a topology change. In networking, convergence time is crucial because it determines how quickly the network can reclaim pathways after a failure or change. RSTP achieves this by implementing a new approach to maintaining and transitioning port states, allowing it to react more swiftly when changes occur. This improvement significantly reduces the time it takes to re-establish a loop-free topology, thus providing a more efficient and reliable network operation. The other options touch on areas that are not central to RSTP’s primary improvements. For example, increased packet size handling is not a feature of RSTP as it relates more to the data link layer's frame size capabilities. The more complex configuration options might refer to the different features available in RSTP compared to STP but are not a core advantage of RSTP; rather, RSTP is designed to simplify some aspects of the configuration. Finally, support for multicast traffic is a feature that may be related to other networking protocols but is not specifically addressed by RSTP improvements. Thus,