Refer to the exhibit.

Each of these four switches has been configured with a hostname, as well as being configured to
run RSTP. No other configuration changes have been made. Which three of these show the
correct RSTP port roles for the indicated switches and interfaces? (Choose three.)

A.
SwitchA, Fa0/2, designated

B.
SwitchA, Fa0/1, root

C.
SwitchB, Gi0/2, root

D.
SwitchB, Gi0/1, designated

E.
SwitchC, Fa0/2, root

F.
SwitchD, Gi0/2, root

Explanation:
The question says “no other configuration changes have been made” so we can understand these
switches have the same bridge priority. Switch C has lowest MAC address so it will become root
bridge and 2 of its ports (Fa0/1 & Fa0/2) will be designated ports.
Because SwitchC is the root bridge so the 2 ports nearest SwitchC on SwitchA (Fa0/1) and
SwitchD (Gi0/2) will be root ports..
Now we come to the most difficult part of this question: SwitchB must have a root port so which
port will it choose? To answer this question we need to know about STP cost and port cost.
In general, “cost” is calculated based on bandwidth of the link. The higher the bandwidth on a link,
the lower the value of its cost. Below are the cost values you should memorize:

SwitchB will choose the interface with lower cost to the root bridge as the root port so we must
calculate the cost on interface Gi0/1 & Gi0/2 of SwitchB to the root bridge. This can be calculated
from the “cost to the root bridge” of each switch because a switch always advertises its cost to
the root bridge in its BPDU. The receiving switch will add its local port cost value to the cost in
the BPDU.
One more thing to notice is that a root bridge always advertises the cost to the root bridge (itself)
with an initial value of 0.
Now let’s have a look at the topology again

SwitchC advertises its cost to the root bridge with a value of 0. Switch D adds 4 (the cost value of
1Gbps link) and advertises this value (4) to SwitchB. SwitchB adds another 4 and learns that it can
reach SwitchC via Gi0/1 port with a total cost of 8. The same process happens for SwitchA and
SwitchB learns that it can reach SwitchC via Gi0/2 with a total cost of 23 -> Switch B chooses
Gi0/1 as its root port ->
Now our last task is to identify the port roles of the ports between SwitchA & SwitchB. It is rather
easy as the MAC address of SwitchA is lower than that of SwitchB so Fa0/2 of SwitchA will be
designated port while Gi0/2 of SwitchB will be alternative port.
Below summaries all the port roles of these switches:

+ DP: Designated Port (forwarding state)
+ RP: Root Port (forwarding state)
+ AP: Alternative Port (blocking state)