Which STP protection feature should be used to prevent an inadvertent change in topology caused by the receipt of a superior BPDU on an access interface?

The correct feature to prevent an inadvertent change in topology caused by the receipt of a superior BPDU on an access interface is root protection. This feature is specifically designed to protect the root bridge and ensure that it is not accidentally or maliciously changed by a superior BPDU arriving from an access port that is not intended to participate in the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) topology changes.

When root protection is enabled on a port, it will help maintain the integrity of the root bridge by blocking the port if a superior BPDU is received. This means that if a device that is not part of the intended switch configuration sends a superior BPDU—perhaps due to misconfiguration or a device being plugged into a port unexpectedly—the port will go into a state that effectively prevents it from becoming potentially disruptive to the STP topology. This helps to maintain network stability by ensuring that the intended root switch remains as the designated root in the network.

In contrast, other options like BPDU protection are designed to mitigate issues caused by bridging loops or unwanted BPDU traffic but do not specifically target the prevention of topology changes linked to the root bridge. Loop protection addresses different aspects of switch loop redundancy, while topology protection is not a standard terminology in STP-related settings;