that includes ne 1 600 ne 4 650 and link 660 step 510 the user then assigns vlan c to c 3 step 520 a determination is made that this ne is also part of c 1 and c 2 step 530 that are defined as vlan a and vlan b respectively step 550 a determination is made that vlan c for c 3 is not identical to any of the other vlans i e vlan a for c 1 or vlan b for c 2 step 560 a determination is then made that vlan c is completely separate from vlan a and vlan b step 580 so that the vlan c is accepted and a new spanning tree is assigned step 540 as illustrated the spanning tree assigned to vlan c disseminating from ne 1 600 is spanning tree 3 fig6 c also illustrates that c 3 could be defined as vlan a or vlan b in this case a determination would be made in step 560 that the vlanset u2014 under u2014 test vlan a or vlan b for c 3 is identical to vlan a for c 1 or vlan b for c 2 accordingly the vlan a or vlan b for c 3 would also be assigned spanning tree 1 or spanning tree 2 respectively step 570 it should be noted that c 3 could not be assigned vlan a b vlan a x or vlan b x where x represents another designation fig6 d illustrates a user at ne 1 600 defining a fourth circuit c 4 that includes ne 1 600 link 620.