As shown in Figure 1, every spanning tree instance (switched LAN or broadcast domain) has a switch designated as the root bridge. The root bridge serves as a reference point for all spanning tree calculations to determine which redundant paths to block.
An election process determines which switch becomes the root bridge.
Figure 2 shows the BID fields. The BID is made up of a priority value, an extended system ID, and the MAC address of the switch.
All switches in the broadcast domain participate in the election process. After a switch boots, it begins to send out BPDU frames every two seconds. These BPDUs contain the switch BID and the root ID.
As the switches forward their BPDU frames, adjacent switches in the broadcast domain read the root ID information from the BPDU frames. If the root ID from a BPDU received is lower than the root ID on the receiving switch, then the receiving switch updates its root ID, identifying the adjacent switch as the root bridge. Actually, it may not be an adjacent switch, but could be any other switch in the broadcast domain. The switch then forwards new BPDU frames with the lower root ID to the other adjacent switches. Eventually, the switch with the lowest BID ends up being identified as the root bridge for the spanning tree instance.
There is a root bridge elected for each spanning tree instance. It is possible to have multiple distinct root bridges. If all ports on all switches are members of VLAN 1, then there is only one spanning tree instance. The extended system ID plays a role in how spanning tree instances are determined.