A campus LAN solution consists of HP Provision ASIC switches at the core and edge. Routing is
implemented at the core. What is one common design principal for such a solution?

A.
Create a different VLAN for each type of user or device on each different edge switch.

B.
Avoid user-based VLAN assignments unless absolutely necessary.

C.
Enable nonstop switching on edge switches to offload some processing from the core and
improve performance.

D.
Implement Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol (MSTP) on edge to core links for better utilization of
redundant links’ bandwidth.

Explanation:
The core idea of MSTP is utilizing the fact that a redundant physical topology only
has a small amount of different spanning-trees (logical topologies). The figure below shows a ring
topology of three switches and three different spanning trees that may result from different root
bridge placements.

Instead of running an STP instance for every VLAN, MSTP runs a number of VLAN-independent
STP instances (representing logical topologies) and then administrator maps each VLAN to the
most appropriate logical topology (STP instance). The number of STP instances is kept to
minimum (saving switch resources), but the network capacity is utilized in more optimal fashion, by
using all possible paths for VLAN traffic.
Note: The ProVision application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) architecture is used in the HP
8200 zl, 5400 zl, 3500, and 6200 yl Series. The ProVision ASIC architecture consists of multiple
network chips interconnected by fabric chips providing a non-blocking crossbar fabric
implementation.
Reference: HP 8200 zl, 5400 zl, 3500, and 6200 yl Switch Series, Technical white paper