Portfast

Portfast is a feature for the configuration of switch ports. When the switch port is activated or also in the event of connection failures, the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) usually starts. The STP includes phases to put the port into the STP forwarding state. The phases of the STP are: Blocking, Listening, Learning and Forwarding. It takes up to 30 seconds for the port to transport user data. With the help of the extension of the STP by Portfast, the change from blocking takes place directly to the last phase, forwarding. The listening and learning stages are bypassed, so the port changes more quickly to the forwarding status.