Dynamic Trunk Protocol (DTP)

A dynamic trunk protocol enables dynamic negotiation of trunk encapsulation types between ports connecting intermediate stations in a computer network.
 The stations are preferably interconnected by a point-to-point link. Negotiation between a local port and a neighbor port of the switches results in synchronization of the port configurations to a common trunk encapsulation type, such as an Interswitch Link (ISL), IEEE 802.1Q or non-trunk port configuration.




The present invention relates to a dynamic trunk protocol (DTP) that enables dynamic negotiation of trunk encapsulation types between ports connecting intermediate stations in a computer network. The stations are preferably switches interconnected by a trunking mechanism used to transport logical links for virtual local area networks (VLANs) between the ports. Negotiation between the ports results in synchronization of their configurations to a common trunk encapsulation type. In particular, the DTP synchronizes each trunk capable port to a common Interswitch Link (ISL), IEEE 802.1Q or non-trunk port configuration.







This graphic will show the negotiation with DTP