Discussion Questions

Questions to discuss for the Spanning Tree paper. Discuss any one of the issues listed below. Please post your response at http://hydralisk.cs.washington.edu.

  1. The spanning tree algorithm was designed to work correctly despite various things that might go wrong. Describe a fault, how it is handled, and whether it produces a desirable outcome. You may posit hardware and software faults of your choosing if you like.
  2. The spanning tree algorithm has been highly successful over time. But nothing is perfect. Speculate about a way in which you would want it to do an even better job and why this is important. Alternatively, speculate about part of the job it does that is unecessary.
  3. The spanning tree algorithm was designed with "easy deployment" in mind. Elaborate on this point by rating the design. That is, how well do you think it lives up to "easy deployment"? Mention an aspect you appreciate, and whether there are any design lessons or shortcomings to note.
  4. Suppose you were asked to wire up a machine room with Ethernet switches. Lets assume that you need to connect four to eight times as many machines as will connect to a single switch. Let's assume all nodes are equally likely to communicate with any other node. How would you go about doing the wiring?