Network Optimization
Network Output Performance: Why Throughput Alone Doesn’t Tell the Story
A link running at 80% utilization sounds healthy on a dashboard. It can still be delivering a terrible voice call or a choppy video stream to the person actually using it. That gap between “the pipe looks fine” and “the application feels broken” is what network output performance is really about — not just how...
Troubleshooting Spanning-Tree Protocol: A Practical Workflow
Spanning tree topology is usually planned as part of the network design — root bridge placement, priority values, and which links should end up blocked. But actual switches on actual cabling don’t always match that plan, especially after months or years of undocumented changes. Troubleshooting STP starts with a simple question: does the network’s actual...
PVST+: Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Explained
Classic STP runs one spanning tree for the entire switched network, no matter how many VLANs exist. That means every VLAN shares the same root bridge and the same blocked links — one uplink ends up carrying nothing while every other uplink carries everything, regardless of which VLANs actually need which paths. PVST+ (Per-VLAN Spanning...