Before I start writing this I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Peter who has helped me to

understand with his wonderful explanation:

thread : https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3646422#3646422

Few things help to understand RSTP convergence better

Port Roles in RSTP:

1. Discarding
2. Learning
3. Forwarding.

Port Types:

1. Root
2. Designated
3. Alternate
4. Backup.

I have put the Port Role and port type because we will be referencing this on the below write up
frequently.

RULE - 1:

All Non-Edge ports will initially be Designated / Discarding state & proposals are sent when the port is
Designated Discarding / Designated Learning

with this is mind, lets go into understanding the RSTP convergence process.

For this, lets consider the topology as below.

STEP 1:
======

Lets say that the link b/w SW1 and SW2 comes up First - following are the sequence of steps that
happens:

a. Both the ports will negotiate on the link type. since these two ports would be working in Full
Duplex , they settle down as link type "Point-to-Point". They will then need to finalize on the port role
and state. By default whenever a link comes up, the port role is DISCARDING and port Type
is DESIGNATED.

b. Since the port type/role is Designated / discarding, as per Rule - 1, they will exchange BPDU's
with proposal bit set (meaning announcing itself as ROOT) . so SW1 Fa1/0 will send BPDU will
proposal bit set and SW2 FA1/0 will send out BPDU will proposal bit set.

c. on receipt of SW2's BPDU, SW1 will compare its MAC with received (SW2) and will ignore the
SW2's BPDU will proposal bit set. On the other hand , SW2 will accept the SW1's proposal (as
superior) and sends a BPDU will agreement bit set.

d. during the proposal/agreement handshake, these switches also start their sync process and this
would put all the Non-Edge Designated port into Designated/discarding state. so SW1's Fa1/1 and
SW2's Fa1/1 will be in Designated/discarding stage and no proposal's would be sent on those link.

e. As part of step # c, SW2's before sending out the agreement would set FA1/0 to
Root/Discarding.

f. SW1 on receipt of the agreement will immediately transition its port from Designated/Discarding
to Designated/Forwarding and SW2 will transition its port from ROOT/Discarding to ROOT/Forwarding.

STEP 2:
======

Lets now say that the link between SW2(Fa1/1) and SW3(Fa1/1). - Sequence of Steps:

a. Same procedure as 1a.

b. Since the port roles are DESIGNATED/DISCARDING, and as per Rule - 1, they will exchange
BPDU with proposal Bit set - SW2's BPDU would have details about Actual Root Bridge (SW1) and
SW4's BPDU would announce itself as the Root.

c. SW2 will ignore SW4's BPDU (being inferior) and continues to send BPDU saying SW1 is the root
with proposal bit set. SW4 on the other hand will accept the superior BPDU , put SW3 Fa1/1 to
ROOT/DISCARDING and sends BPDU with agreement bit set.

d. SW2 on receipt of it, will move its port SW2 Fa1/1 to DESIGNATED/FORWARDING and SW4 will
move its FA1/1 to ROOT/FORWARDING . Step 1d will also be followed in this case as well.
STEP 3:
======

Lets say the link between SW4 (Fa1/0) and SW3 (Fa1/0) comes up - Sequence of steps:

a. Same procedure as 1a.

b. since the port roles on this link is DESIGNATED/DISCARDING, as per rule 1, they will exchange
BPDU with proposal bit set. SW4 will say root Bridge is SW1 and SW3 will say itself as the Root.

c. SW3 will receive SW4's BPDU and will reject the proposal (because inferior BPDU) and continue
to send proposal. On the other hand SW4 , on receipt of BPDU from SW3, now has a superior BPDU.
so it will send a BPDU with agreement bit set. It also sets SW4 Fa1/1 to ROOT/DISCARDING .

d. since a new root port is elected (it basically means a "RESTART" of the RSTP ) on SW4, the
remaining port (including Fa1/0 which was root earlier) gets into DESIGNATED/DISCARDING state.

e. SW3 on receipt of agreement sets its Fa1/0 port to DESIGNATED/FORWARDING and SW4 will
set its Fa1/1 to ROOT/FORWARDING.

f. As a follow up of 3d, as per rule R1, it starts sending proposal. That's ho wthe information about
the new root bridge SW3 reachable via SW4 propogates to SW2.

g. The situation will then repeat on SW2 - after it receives a Proposal from SW4, it finds out that a
new root switch has emerged in the network and that the root port has changed. It will therefore set
F1/1 as the new Root/Discarding port role/state, all other non-edge ports will be moved to
Designated/Discarding, and after sending an Agreement back to SW4, the F1/1 on SW2 will be set to
Root/Forwarding (upon receiving the Agreement, SW4 will move the F1/0 from Designated/Discarding
to Designated/Forwarding, making the link bidirectionally forwarding rapidly).

h. Proposals sent from the non-edge Designated/Discarding ports on SW2 also reach SW1. When
SW1 receives a Proposal that contains information about a better root switch than SW1 itself, SW1
ceases to be the root switch, selects the F1/0 as the new Root/Discarding port, sets all non-edge
Designated ports to Discarding, send an Agreement back to SW2 and sets the F1/0 to
Root/Forwarding. SW2, upon receiving this Agreement, will also immediately move the F1/0 to
Designated/Forwarding.
Step 4:
=====

Link between SW3 and SW1 comes up - sequence of steps:

a. same procedure as step 1a.

b. Ports SW3 Fa1/1 and SW1 FA1/1 will be in DESIGNATED/DISCARDING state. As per Rule -1,
they start sending Proposals. In this case both SW3 and SW1 will announce SW3 as the ROOT but with
different ROOT port Cost.

c. as SW1's proposal is Inferior, SW3 will simply ignore the proposal from SW1 and continue
sending its own. on the other hand, SW1 will notice a new Root port is available. so will select Fa1/1
as ROOT/DISCARDING , reset all remaining to DESIGNATED/DISCARDING and send agreement to
SW3.

d. SW3 will put Fa1/1 into DESIGNATED/FORWARDING and SW1 will put Fa1/1 to
ROOT/FORWARDING

e. Because on SW1, the Fa1/0 has become DESIGNATED/DISCARDING as per Rule 1, it sends out
proposal. On SW2, these proposal make the Fa1/0 as new root port (although the total root path cost
is identical both via SW1 and SW4, the path via SW1 is preferred by SW2 because of SW1's lower MAC
address). Hence SW2 will select SW2 FA1/0 as new ROOT/DISCARDING put all remaining non-edge
port into DESIGNATED/DISCARDING then send agreement from FA1/0 back to SW1 and put it into
ROOT/FORWARDING and SW2 will put FA1/0 into DESIGNATED/FORWARDING.

f. SW2 is sending proposal to SW4 but to SW4 they are irrelevant (because of inferior root port
path cast). so the proposal is ignored and SW4 continues to send its own BPDUs (without the
proposal bit set as the F1/0 is not currently in DESIGNATED/DISCARDING or
DESIGNATED/LEARNING). so SW2 upon receiving SW4's BPDU , SW2 will note that its port SW2
FA1/1 is neither Root/Designated port on this link. so it will move this port into
"ALTERNATE/DISCADING" and case sending BPDU's altogeather