I am revamping a simple network, which is based on cascaded, standard, unmanaged PoE switches. I am also adding a redundant loop closing wire, from the last switch to the first one, which at the moment, due to unavailability managed and [R]STP switches, is left open.
I am planning to use [R]STP or similar technologies but I have a crucial question about: Can I put a single STP switch only on the loop closing point and avoid changing the remaining switches in the middle (which would cost me a lot of money)?
For example, taking a switch like the Ubiquiti Toughswitch series (which would be handy thanks to its ability to power also their Airmax products), would it be possible to close the loop on two of its ports and enabling the spanning tree protocol to avoid creating a loop but keeping the ability to self recover the network in the failure event of one of the cascaded switches?
Thanks in advance for all the suggestions.