Spanning Tree Protocol

Today I read the Linux Networking book, and learnr about bridging and the Spanning Tree Protocol which is used to improve communication in LANs by bridging different atomic LANs together. The idea behind this protocol is that some computer is chosen as the root of the network and a spanning tree is built to optimize creation of the spanning tree and to prevent loops to be created in the network. This protocol which has an IEEE specification has also two other successors: the Rapid Spanning Tree protocol and the Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol. I will probably update this entry in order to give an overview of the details of these protocols.