Root vs. Non-Root Bridges

[bjohns]

I'm setting up 6-10 wireless bridges (Aironet 350s) to connect segments together with no one being the "main" segment. There will not be any clients associating with these bridges. The manual says you must have one Root Bridge and shows a point to multi-point configuration. Must I select one bridge to be the Root and if so will all traffic to and from non-root bridges need to go through it? What is the best configuration and roles of the bridges in this situation?

[tepatel]

It depends on the geo-graphical setup of the bridges..

You do need one bridge as "Root" alteast but traffic from one non-root to other non-root dosen't always have to go through the root..You can have non-root bridges associated with non-root as well but one of the non-root in that chain needs to have associated with root which is must..Like following

NR1-----NR2-----NR3----NR4-----Root

(you can have root anywhere in that chain)

So if root is not there, all the non-roots (NR1-4) will loos the association..So here traffic from NR1 to NR3 will go through NR2 but not through Root..