Feature request: support RSTP

Given that newer speakers such as Roam, Move and Era no longer support Sonosnet, I think it’s safe to assume it’s days are numbered and updating STP to something from the last decade is even lower on the list than alphabetic selection of items in local libraries … 

But they still support WiFi and Ethernet using (a mangled kind of) STP don’t they?

Not sure it’s a mangled version, there would be no benefit to Sonos to change it. 

It is a non compliant version and causes issues for customers. There are two good reasons to change it.  This has been long-called for.  Sonos - have you learned from your experience and are you now listening?  Will we see this on the roadmap soon?

Not on all products no. 

Only Sonosnet uses STP. However, if you buy a new Move, Roam, Era100, Era300, Move 2, or Roam 2 (there may be others) none of these support Sonosnet and therefore don’t use/need STP…

You can get an ethernet dongle for the two Era speakers as they don’t have a built in ethernet port and connect to Ethernet, but they still won’t participate in Sonosnet. 

If you have older speakers combined even with an Ethernet connected Era, you’ll still have a split network if you are using Sonosnet on the older stuff. I’m not sure that helps in the brave new app world. 

So it would appear that the Sonos answer to the STP issue is instead to phase out Sonosnet and not update to RSTP with all the required testing. 

Hi @PotemkinMcNasty 

Thank you for your feedback.

According to one obscure reference that I found (internal documentation), we already support RSTP. I confirmed this with a colleague.

The only public mention of it that I could find is on our Cisco RV Series compatibility help page.

I hope this helps.

Thank you, but I’m not convinced.  
SONOS uses non-standard link costs in their RSTP implementation.  Hence we have to deploy STP and manually set link costs.  What is needed is Sonos to update the route costs to comply with standard so (R)STP works. 
 

if I’ve missed something, please do let me know because what you wrote could be very interesting for many people.

Hi @PotemkinMcNasty 

Thank you for your feedback.

According to one obscure reference that I found (internal documentation), we already support RSTP. I confirmed this with a colleague.

The only public mention of it that I could find is on our Cisco RV Series compatibility help page.

I hope this helps.

Hi @PotemkinMcNasty 

It seems some newer speakers support RSTP, whereas some older ones do not.

I've marked this thread as a feature request and it will be seen by the relevant teams for consideration.

However, considering that we are moving away from SonosNet (newer speakers do not support it), I think it may be some time in coming (if at all).

I hope this helps.

Hi,

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is a network protocol that builds a loop-free logical topology for Ethernet networks.  Older and newer speakers still support ethernet, so the STP issue remains current I think.

You have answered my question, which was “Given the recent disastrous software revamp, will Sonos now start to listen more to customers and their feature requests, specifically support for RSTP?  Or will we continue to hear that Sonos doesn’t comment on roadmap?”

The answer as I’m reading it is “No, Sonos has not learned from the recent catastrophic software release, and will not be listening more to customers and commenting on the roadmap.”

I believe it would be more important to have a setting where we could choose to disable SonosNet even when a speaker is connected to Ethernet. This way I could have a wired soundbar talking via radio to its surrounds, without enabling SonosNet and, by result, without having to deal with STP or RSTP issues.

BTW, the network loop which needs to be addressed by STP only occurs if you have two or more speakers connected to Ethernet and broadcasting its own parallel network called SonosNet. If the wired speakers have their radios off (WiFi off, as called by the app) no SonosNet is created, so no worries about STP.