User`s guide

xx Ethernet or Token Ring Bridge

Terminology

When conﬁguring your system, and when reading this manual, keep in

mind the following terminology:

Infrastructure – The wireless infrastructure is the communications sys-

tem that combines Aironet Bridges, mobile nodes and ﬁxed nodes. Airo-

net Bridges within the infrastructure can be either root units, which are

physically wired to the LAN backbone, or can act as wireless repeaters.

Other RF enabled devices serve as ﬁxed nodes or mobile nodes.

Root Unit – The root unit is an Aironet Bridge that is located at the top,

or starting point, of a wireless infrastructure. The root unit provides the

physical connection to the wired LAN (such as Ethernet or Token Ring)

and contains conﬁguration information in its association table that cov-

ers all nodes in the infrastructure.

Repeater – A repeater is an Aironet Bridge that extends the radio range

of the infrastructure. A repeater is not physically attached to the wired

LAN, but communicates via radio to another Bridge, which is either a

root unit or another repeater.

End Node – A radio node that is located at the end of the network tree.

Parent/Child Node – Refers to the relationships between nodes in the

wireless infrastructure. The complete set of relationships is sometimes

described as a network tree. For example, the Aironet Bridge (at the top

of the tree) would be the parent of the end nodes. Conversely, the end

nodes would be the children of the Aironet Bridge.

Association – Each root unit or repeater in the infrastructure contains an

association table that controls the routing of packets between the Bridge

and the wireless infrastructure. The association table maintains entries

for all the nodes situated below the Aironet Bridge on the infrastructure

including repeaters and radio nodes.

Power Saving Protocol (PSP) and Non-Power Saving Protocol –

The Power Saving Protocol allows computers (usually portable comput-

ers) to power up only part of the time to conserve energy. If a radio node

is using the Power Saving Protocol to communicate with the infrastruc-

ture, the Aironet Bridge must be aware of this mode and implement

additional features such as message store and forward.