User guide

Wireless Networking Concepts
Enterasys Wireless Standalone 802.11n AP User Guide 2-3
Figure 2-2 Infrastructure Wireless LAN for Roaming
Infrastructure Wireless Bridge
TheIEEE802.11standarddefinesaWirelessDistributionSystem(WDS)forbridgeconnections
betweenBSSareas(APs).TheAPusesWDStoforwardtrafficonlinksbetweenunits.
TheAPsuppo
rtsWDSlinksoneitherthe5GHz(802.11a/n)or2.4GHz(802.11b/g/n)bandsand
canbeusedwithvariousexternalantennastoofferflexibledeploymentoptions.Upto12WDS
links(sixperradio)canbespecifiedforeachunitinthewirelessnetwork.Onlyoneunitmustbe
configure
dasthe“rootAP”inthewirelessnetwork.TherootAPshouldbetheunitconnectedto
themaincoreofthewiredLAN.OtherWDSAPsmustconfigureone“parent”linktotherootor
toaWDSAPconnectedtotherootAP.TheotherfiveavailableWD
Slinkscanbespecifiedas
“child”linkstootherbridges.Thisformsatiered‐startopologyforthewirelessbridgenetwork.
WhenusingWDSonaradioband,onlywirelessbridgeunitscanassociatetoeachother.Wireless
clientscanonlyassociatewiththeAPusingaradiobandsettoAP
.Formoreinformationabout
WDS,seeChapter5,Co
nfiguringWDS.