Wave Wireless Networking SPEEDLAN 4100, Installation And Operation User Manual

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SPEEDLAN 4100 & 4200 Installation and Operation User Guide
5-8 Configuring SPEEDLAN 4100 & 4200
other protocols to experience poor performance. Campus Cell PRC helps to alleviate this problem
by placing multiple packets into one larger packet, which saves bandwidth by eliminating the extra
overhead. The transport methods are described below:
•
Campus Cell PRC Mode (No Base Station/Brouter)
This method of transportation is used only for point-to-point links. If any of the brouters are
unable to see each other, a base station must be used to repeat traffic from one brouter to
next brouter in line. This point-to-point mode utilizes Campus Cell PRC packet bundling,
which reduces the amount of overhead caused by sending smaller individual packets across
the wireless network. This greatly improves the performance of the connection.
•
Campus PRC Mode (This is a Non-Polling Base Station/Brouter)
This setting should be used if this is the only base station in the wireless network cell.
SPEEDLAN has a special mode where one wireless brouter can be configured as a base sta-
tion (a SPEEDLAN 4100) and each additional wireless node is setup as a CPE brouter (a
SPEEDLAN 4200). In this configuration the only requirement is that each SPEEDLAN 4200
be able to communicate directly with the SPEEDLAN 4100. The SPEEDLAN 4100 is respon-
sible for repeating packets that need to travel between the SPEEDLAN 4200. The Non-Poll-
ing Base does not dynamically allocate bandwidth to each remote brouter.
The performance of this approach is greatly improved if the SPEEDLAN 4100 is connected to the
heaviest network or network server.
•
Campus PRC Mode (This is a Polling Base Station/Brouter)
This is the recommended mode of operation for a wireless base station. When the number
of CPE exceed 3 or 4, the non-polling base station may not be able to keep up with the
wireless traffic that needs to be forwarded. The polling base station alleviates this problem
by continuously communicating with every SPEEDLAN 4200 in its cell. It is also responsible
for dynamically assigning how much bandwidth is allocated to each remote site based on
the network traffic load.
This greatly improves the performance of a SPEEDLAN 4100 wireless network cell. As the number of
SPEEDLAN 4200 brouters increase, the importance of a polling base station increases and efficiency
is proportionately improved.
•
Campus PRC (This is a Remote Station/Brouter)
This is the configuration required for remote brouters that will be installed as CPE into a
multipoint wireless network (e.g., a SPEEDLAN 4400). In this mode, a SPEEDLAN 4200 will
only communicate with a base station. This cannot be used for point-to-point links.