Which protocol is a faster convergence of STP?

• A. Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol
• B. Spanning Tree Protocol
• C. Open Shortest Path First
• D. Border Gateway Protocol

Answer: (A)

Faster convergence means the network quickly stabilizes to a loop-free topology after a change. Traditional Spanning Tree Protocol does this slowly because it forces ports to go through blocking, listening, and learning states with fixed timers, often taking many seconds before traffic can resume on a new valid path. Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol speeds things up by removing or shortening those delays: it allows quick transitions to forwarding, uses edge ports to immediately move end-device connections into forwarding, and handles topology updates with quicker BPDU processing and role changes. This results in convergence times that are much shorter than with classic STP, often near-instant for common changes.

Open Shortest Path First and Border Gateway Protocol are routing protocols operating at Layer 3, not Layer 2 spanning-tree convergence. They don’t govern STP behavior, so they don’t offer faster STP convergence.