User's Guide

is defined as “transparent” because its activity is transparent to the network
hosts. In other words, the wireless bridge forwards packets from one net-
work segment to the other according to a “forwarding table” which is built
by learning the network topology from the analysis of the incoming traffic.
In this configuration, no explicit interaction between the wireless bridge and
the network hosts takes place. The two network segments, connected to
both sides of the wireless bridge, will share the same IP addressing class.
Thus, each network host must use a unique IP address, i.e., it is not allowed
to have two devices sharing the same IP address.
4.2 Mesh Network Architecture
This section describes the Fluidmesh mesh networking architecture and the
basic functionalities of the FM1100/
FM1200/FM3100 series. For the sake of
clarity, we will refer to a generic FM unit whenever the discussion applies to
the FM1100,
FM1200 and the FM3100 series.
Fluidmesh Networks develops wireless networking solutions based on the
innovative mesh networking architecture which presents unmatched advan-
tages in terms of reliability and flexibility compared to any traditional wire-
less solution. Using Fluidmesh technology for your network allows you to
take advantage of this powerful architecture. An example of wireless mesh
network is shown in Fig. 4.3. In a wireless mesh network, ever y FM unit
transmits the data
packets coming from the devices directly attached to it
and also acts as an “intelligent router” able to forward packets coming from
other FM units through the optimal path.
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