Specifications

2-25
Wireless Traffic
Wireless Traffic
In addition to data, wireless network traffic includes beacons and various types of
messages.
Beacons
A beacon is a message that is transmitted at regular intervals by the RoamAbout APs to all
wireless clients in the wireless infrastructure. Beacons are used to maintain and optimize
communications by helping mobile RoamAbout clients to automatically connect to the AP
that provides the best communications quality.
Beacons are transmitted at 2 Mbit/s when the transmit rate is set to auto rate, as described
in Transmit Rate on page 2-7. If the transmit rate is fixed, the beacons are transmitted at
the fixed rate.
Message Types
When a device in the wireless network transmits data, it can take one of these forms:
• Broadcast: A data message transmitted by one device to all devices in the network.
• Multicast: A data message transmitted by one device to multiple devices in the
network. Unlike broadcast messages, multicast messages do not always include all
devices in the network.
• Unicast: A data message transmitted by one device to another device.
Broadcast and multicast messages are transmitted at 2 Mbit/s when the transmit rate is set
to auto rate, as described in Transmit Rate on page 2-7. If the transmit rate is fixed, the
broadcast and multicast messages are transmitted at the fixed rate.