WI-MOD-E-100 & WI-MOD-E-300 Wireless Ethernet
User Manual
WI-MOD-E Manual v1.10
Page
34
3.10
Multiple AP Repeater Mesh Network
The range of a wireless network can be extended by allowing Access Points to behave as repeaters
and forward traffic to other Access Points. Access Point to Access Point communications is also
known as Wireless Distribution System (WDS). The WI-MOD-E offers very powerful WDS
configuration, allowing for a
mesh
network with self-healing and automatic node discovery.
Alternatively, fixed AP to AP links can be configured for optimized throughput.
WDS Access Points require IEEE802.11 4-address mode. 4-address mode may also be used by WI-
MOD-E clients when Ethernet protocols other than IP are to be used – see section “3.7 Normal
Operation” for more details.
Each WI-MOD-E Access Point supports up to 6 separate
interfaces
for WDS links to other Access
Points. Each WDS interface can be either a
bridge
or
router
interface (refer section “1.1 Network
Topology” for more information on bridge vs router). If you need a simple repeater network, use a
bridge interface.
A WDS
bridge
interface allows traffic to be bridged to another Access Point on the same IP
network. WDS bridge interfaces do not require additional IP Address configuration, as they are
bridged with the standard
wireless interface
that is used for connections to associated clients. All 6
WDS interfaces on the one Access Point may be bridged if required.
WDS bridge interfaces have the advantage that redundant paths are permitted when using the bridge
Spanning Tree Protocol (see section “3.9 Spanning Tree Protocol”), thus behaving as a self-healing
mesh network. Bridged networks are also not as configuration intensive as routed networks. Since
WDS bridge interfaces generally do not require IP address configuration (they inherit the IP address
of the standard wireless interface), they can be configured to automatically connect to other WDS
enabled Access Points.
A WDS
router
interface allows traffic to be routed to an Access Point on a different network, and
therefore requires configuration of an IP address to reflect the network address of the destination
network. WDS router interfaces cannot provide the redundancy of bridge interfaces, but can be used
to reduce radio bandwidth requirements because the router can determine the destination based on
IP address, whereas the bridge must go through a learning phase where all broadcast traffic must be
retransmitted on each interface. Routed networks may also be used in some cases to avoid the
overhead introduced by the bridge Spanning Tree Protocol when network loops exist.
Each WDS interface may also be configured with a different encryption algorithm; however each
side of a WDS link must specify the same encryption algorithm and keys. When configuring a mesh
