2.3 Spanning Tree Alg. Contd.
nTo construct the
minimum spanning tree, the bridges have to decide on which one is going to be the root node. To do this they
broadcast their MAC address to each other using a MAC multicast address that is used specifically for
configuration changes. The bridge with the lowest MAC address
becomes the root. This can be overwritten by using a bridge priority number. This is set by the network
manager and allows the better management of the network (i.e, choose the root node dependent upon traffic
loading, location, etc.)