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Cisco Aironet Wireless LAN Adapters Installation and Configuration Guide for MS-DOS
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Chapter 1 Overview System Configurations
Wireless Infrastructure
In a wireless infras tructure (Figure 1-2), an access point is us ed as a stand alone root unit. The root unit
is not attached to any wired LAN (such as an Ethernet LAN), but functions as a hub linking all stations
together. This configuration is sim ilar to the ad hoc netw ork , ex cep t that the access point ser ves as t he
focal point for communication s. This increases the effective communicat ion range over the ad hoc LAN
because both stations are n ot r eq ui re d to b e i n di re ct co m mu ni cat io n ra ng e of e ach other.
Figure1-2 Wireless Infrastructure
Wireless Infrastructure with Workstations Accessing a Wired LAN
A micro-cellular networ k ca n b e cr eat ed by p lac in g two o r mo r e ac ces s points on a LAN (Figure 1-3).
The roaming protocols allow remote workstations to move from one microcell domain to another. The
process is seamless and t ra nsparent. The connectio n to th e file server or host is m ai nt ain ed w i thout
disruption. This configuration is useful with portable or mobile stations, allowing them to be directly
connected to the wired network even while moving about (roaming). When an infrastructure is
configured by using multipl e a cce s s p oi nt s an d r epe at ers, a mobile station is a ut om ati cally associated
and re-associated to the access point which provid es the best performance . This is referred to as se amless
roaming.
Access Point
(Root Unit)
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