[e2e] use of MAC addresses

[Zartash Afzal Uzmi]

Charles M. Hannum wrote:
>
> On Wed, Apr 19, 2006 at 06:07:14PM +0200, Detlef Bosau wrote:
> > Charles M. Hannum wrote:
> >
> > >Actually, even 1000 nodes on a single Ethernet starts to get
> problematic
> > >in practice -- even in a star topology (where you don't
> necessarily have
> > >collision problems), you get nailed by ARP probes pretty quickly.
> >
> > Hm. May I play the advocatus diaboly here?
> >
> > If we only use Ethernet addresses and no IP - where are the ARP probes
> > then? ;-)
>
> Sure.  Still, I'd like to see how long it takes spanning tree to
> converge -- or if it ever does.
>

Assuming that we are still talking about single identifier for IP and MAC,
why does it affect the working of spanning tree at all? The spanning tree
algorithm does not care whether an end station has two different identifiers
(IP and MAC different) or just one identifier (IP=MAC). In fact, the STA
does not care whether there are any end stations at all!