explorer frame

An explorer frame or explorer packet is used in source ro uting in Token Ring to determine the optimal routing to other network facilities.

There are two different explorer frames: the All Paths Explorer Frame( APE), which is sent between two hosts and covers all routes, and the Spanning Tree Explorer Frame, which is sent only along the spanning tree. The All Paths Explorer Frame is a discovery data packet that is sent into a meshed network and discovers all alternate routes.