Internet protocol suite |
---|
Application layer |
Transport layer |
Internet layer |
Link layer |
TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is a networking protocol for optimizing bandwidth and resilience in Ethernet networks,[1] implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware customer-bridging problem.[2] Routing bridges (RBridges) are compatible with, and can incrementally replace, previous IEEE 802.1 customer bridges. TRILL Switches are also compatible with IPv4 and IPv6, routers and end systems. They are invisible to current IP routers, and like conventional routers, RBridges terminate the broadcast, unknown-unicast and multicast traffic of DIX Ethernet and the frames of IEEE 802.2 LLC including the bridge protocol data units of the Spanning Tree Protocol.
TRILL was designed as a successor to the Spanning Tree Protocol, both having been created by the same person, Radia Perlman. The catalyst for TRILL was an event at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center which began on 13 November 2002.[3][4] The concept of Rbridges[5] [sic] was first proposed to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2004,[6] who in 2005[7] rejected what came to be known as TRILL, and in 2006 through 2012[8] devised an incompatible variation known as Shortest Path Bridging.