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Dante and Spanning Tree running on redundant networks

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Lonnie Barrios:
I'm standing up redundant Dante networks for a performing arts center.  The consultant who designed this wants both audio networks (Audio A and Audio B, aka Dante Primary & Secondary) physically configured in a ring topology (switch A to switch B to... ...switch J back to switch A).  Spanning tree isn't going to like this and is going to block an interface somewhere on each ring (network).  If someone connects a device (or maybe a portable cabinet with multiple wireless microphone receivers connected to small switches) to the A network, STP will have to go through the election process for root bridge and determine if there is now a network loop.  I imagine this could take several seconds.  My question is how Dante will behave when it sees that the A network is having an interruption.  Will audio continue to play on the B network?  I'm thinking that if there were only one audio network, audio might be interrupted for sure.  We've never done a full redundant setup like this so I don't know how it will behave.  Perhaps the Dante devices will see an issue with the A network and start playing the stream that they also received on the B network.  If an interruption does happen because of STP when connecting a device to network A, it seems like connecting the switches in the portable to network A and B at the same time would definitely cause an interruption to audio.  Any ideas?

Russell Ault:

--- Quote from: Lonnie Barrios on May 13, 2021, 04:35:46 PM ---{...} The consultant who designed this wants both audio networks (Audio A and Audio B, aka Dante Primary & Secondary) physically configured in a ring topology (switch A to switch B to... ...switch J back to switch A). {...}

--- End quote ---

What? Why?


--- Quote from: Lonnie Barrios on May 13, 2021, 04:35:46 PM ---{...} Any ideas?

--- End quote ---

Have you considered suggesting to your employer/client that the design of their PAC's Dante network should be left to someone who knows enough about networking to understand that Ethernet doesn't use a ring topology?

No good will come from turning a star into a ring.

-Russ

Dave Pluke:

--- Quote from: Russell Ault on May 13, 2021, 04:53:24 PM ---What? Why?

No good will come from turning a star into a ring.


--- End quote ---

Agreed. What century is this, anyway?

Dave

Russell Ault:

--- Quote from: Dave Pluke on May 13, 2021, 04:55:14 PM ---Agreed. What century is this, anyway?

--- End quote ---

I mean, rings were super rare last century, too. As near as I can tell, the only widely-deployed system to use a physical ring topology is the PSTN's SS7. The only one I've ever seen in action is the (admittedly fairly brilliant) Optocore system that DiGiCo licenses. (Strangely, and despite the name, IBM's Token Ring network protocol doesn't actually use a ring topology at the physical layer.)


--- Quote from: Lonnie Barrios on May 13, 2021, 04:35:46 PM ---{...} Any ideas?

--- End quote ---

Here's another one that will allow you to get up and running quickly (and kick the innevitable headaches down the road, ideally for somebody else to deal with): casually "forget" to make one of the connections in the loop and then also "forget" to enable Spanning Tree Protocol in the switches. Problem, uh, mitigated!

-Russ

ETA: I just realized something: Welcome to the forums! Thank you for being part of the ~0.00001% of new users who actually followed the directions and used their real name as their Display Name!

Andrew Broughton:

--- Quote from: Russell Ault on May 13, 2021, 05:26:50 PM ---I mean, rings were super rare last century, too. As near as I can tell, the only widely-deployed system to use a physical ring topology is the PSTN's SS7. The only one I've ever seen in action is the (admittedly fairly brilliant) Optocore system that DiGiCo licenses.

--- End quote ---

Yamaha's Rivage TwinLANe and Console control networks are also ring topologies.

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