STP Broken (BKN) State and Port Inconsistencies

The BKN* state is an extension to the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). It appears when using the show spanning-tree vlan command and indicates various types of inconsistencies on network ports. Inconsistencies prompting the BKN* state include:

  • Root Inconsistent: Happens when a port receives superior BPDUs and Root Guard is enabled.
  • Loopguard Inconsistent: Happens when a port stops receiving BPDUs and Loopguard is enabled.
  • PVID inconsistent is primarily related to a native VLAN mismatch on access/trunk ports or MST region VLAN-to-instance mapping conflicts.
  • Type inconsistent which appears when there is a mismatch of the STP protocol being used, or the mode being used on connected ports.

https://networklessons.com/spanning-tree/spanning-tree-port-states/