From: Dominique Blas (ml_at_blas.net)
Date: 2002-09-26 23:24:53 UTC
Le Mercredi 18 Septembre 2002 20:04, Tilo Lutz a �crit :
> >On Wed, Sep 18, 2002 at 04:00:38PM +0200, Tilo Lutz wrote:
> >> Unfortunatly the wds-stuff works only with HostAPs.
> >> If Bridging works in Master-mode is there any way to get it work in
> >> Managed-mode?
>
> Jouni Malinen wrote:
> > Not with IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN. Which other AP are you using? Do you
> > know whether it supports WDS frames? If you do not need to have station
> > associating to the card using Host AP driver, you could use Repeater
> > mode and IEEE 802.11 compliant WDS frames. This would of course require
> > that the other AP supports such frames.
>
> I don't know what kind of APs are used. But if they support WDS, how will
> I configure my HostAP?
>
> Use Repeater-mode,
> Add the MAC of the AP as WDS.
> Gut the wlan0wds0 interface up.
Tilo, just for information.
I have the opportunity (*), this summer, to test the whole chain with hostap, that is :
Mobile ((( --- ))) Bridge Router ------// ------- Server
WDS ((( ------ )))) WDS Crossed Ethernet
The four adapters were MA401.
The mobile, bridge and routeur were handbooks running hostap.
The server was a tower.
Only mobile, router and server had IP address of course.
Following the procedure described by Jouni in his README
WDS was set up and worked well.
Bridge is easy to configure with brctl.
I was therefore able to ping from the mobile the server. This test was important to me to validate the whole chain.
It is therefore possible to deploy an infrastructure with an centralized AP
(the router acting as a 802.1x relay [radius client] for example)
and multiple remote AP (several miles away) acting only as bridge (that is to say with poor intelligence and so,
with no support needed).
It could be possible to add another hop with a second bridge.
However, be aware that a AP with such a double interface take a little
amount of time to switch from one interface to the other and so,
rates are affected.
I didn't make measures however.
You can see a cute picture in a document I wrote (in French, sorry) at blas.net/wireless.html
db
(*) This test needed 4 wireless adapters.