User's Manual

Table Of Contents

ORiNOCO

802.11a/b/g/n USB Adapter User Guide

Wireless Topologies

Introduction

ORiNOCO

wireless products operate similar to Ethernet products. The only difference is that a radio replaces the wire

between communicating devices. This means that all of your existing applications that operate over Ethernet will work

with the ORiNOCO

11a/b/g/n USB Client without any special wireless networking software.

The Wireless USB Adapter supports the Wireless LAN configurations defined by the IEEE 802.11n. The Wireless USB

Adapter can be configured as:

• Ad-Hoc mode for wireless environments that contain no Access Point

• Infrastructure mode for wireless environments with an Access Point

A wireless LAN can be configured for one of these two modes of operation.

Peer-to-Peer Group

A Peer-to-Peer group (also known as an Ad-Hoc network) is the simplest to deploy and is ideal for small offices.

Peer-to-Peer Group can be comprised of two or more wireless clients configured to communicate with one another.

Peer-to-Peer Group clients communicate directly with each other without using an access point (AP). As a user on this

type of network, you are able to quickly build up a wireless network in order to share files with other employees, print to

a shared office printer, and access the Internet through a single shared connection. Ad-hoc networking is cost effective,

because no other devices components are needed (such as access points, hubs or routers) in order to setup a network.

However, with Ad-Hoc networking, your computer is only able to communicate with other nearby wireless clients. By

using the off-the-shelf peer-to-peer network operating systems, each computer can dynamically connect and reconnect

to the others with no additional configuration, as illustrated in Figure Peer-to-Peer Group.

Figure 3-1 Peer-to-Peer Group