by placing a second access point closer to second group of stations (“Poolside” in our example) and bridge the two APs with a WDS link. This extends your network wirelessly by providing an extra hop to get to distant stations.

Client station

Client station

WDS bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Client station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Client station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“East wing” AP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Poolside” AP

Wired (Ethernet) connection

LAN

Backup links and unwanted loops in WDS bridges

Another use for WDS bridging, the creation of backup links, is not supported in this release of the Gateway 7001 Series self-managed AP. The topic is included here to emphasize that you should not try to use WDS in this way. Backup links will result in unwanted, endless loops of data traffic

If an access point provides Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), WDS can be used to configure backup paths between access points across the network. For example, between two access points you could have both a primary path through Ethernet and a secondary (backup) wireless path through a WDS link. If the Ethernet connection goes down, STP would reconfigure its map of the network and effectively fix the down network segment by activating the backup wireless path.

The Gateway 7001 Series self-managed AP does not provide STP for this release. Without STP, it is possible that both connections (paths) may be active at the same time, and result in an endless loop of traffic on the LAN.

Therefore, be sure not create loops with either WDS bridges or combinations of Wired (Ethernet) connections and WDS bridges.

For more information, see the “Do not create loops” note under “Configuring WDS settings” on page 117.

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