Edge Ports and Edge Port Roles
The RUCKUS implementation of IEEE 802.1w allows ports that are configured as Edge ports to be present in an IEEE 802.1w topology. (Topology with Edge Ports). Edge ports are ports of a bridge that connect to workstations or computers. Edge ports do not register any incoming BPDU activities.
Edge ports assume Designated port roles. Port flapping does not cause any topology change events on Edge ports since IEEE 802.1w does not consider Edge ports in the spanning tree calculations.
However, if any incoming RST BPDU is received from a previously configured Edge port, IEEE 802.1w automatically makes the port a non-edge port. This is extremely important to ensure a loop-free Layer 2 operation since a non-edge port is part of the active RSTP topology.
The IEEE 802.1w protocol can auto-detect an Edge port and a non-edge port. An administrator can also configure a port to be an Edge port using the CLI. It is recommended that Edge ports are configured explicitly to take advantage of the Edge port feature, instead of allowing the protocol to auto-detect them.