Network Configuration

To better understand how the wireless LAN products work together to create a wireless network, it might be helpful to depict a few of the possible wireless LAN PC card network configurations. The wireless LAN products can be configured as:

a)Ad-hoc (or peer-to-peer) for departmental or SOHO LANs.

b)Infrastructure for enterprise LANs.

a)Ad-hoc (peer-to-peer) Mode

This is the simplest network configuration with several computers equipped with the PC Cards that form a wireless network whenever they are within range of one another. In ad-hoc mode, each client is peer-to- peer, would only have access to the resources of the other client and does not require an access point. This is the easiest and least expensive way for the SOHO to set up a wireless network. The image below depicts a network in ad-hoc mode.

b)Infrastructure Mode

The infrastructure mode requires the use of an access point (AP). In this mode, all wireless communication between two computers has to be via the AP. It doesn’t matter if the AP is stand-alone or wired to an Ethernet network. If used in stand-alone, the AP can extend the range of independent wireless LANs by acting as a repeater, which effectively doubles the distance between wireless stations. The image below depicts a network in infrastructure mode.