Wireless Distribution System
Fig. 40 Wireless Distribution System.
Traditionally, access points are connected by Ethernet. By IEEE 802.11 Wireless Distribution System (WDS), APs can communicate with one another wirelessly. For example, in Fig. 40, AP 2 acts as an access point for the note- book computers and it forwards packets sent from the notebook computers to AP 1 through WDS. Then, AP 1 forwards the packets to the Ethernet LAN. Packets destined for the notebook computers follow a reverse path from the Ethernet LAN through the APs to the notebook computers. In this way, AP 2 plays a role of “AP repeater”.
Fig. 41 LAN-to-LAN bridging.
By WDS, two or more LAN segments can be connected wirelessly. As illus- trated in Fig. 41Fig. 42Fig. 41, a pair of wireless LAN-to-LAN bridges is used to connect two LAN seg-ments. Since the SMC2586W-G is WDS-enabled, it can be used as a wireless bridge even when it is in AP mode.
NOTE: An
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