Allied Telesis AT-WA7500 - Manual (Page 27)

AT-WA7500 User’s Guide
27
Using Access
Points to Create
a Point-to-Point
Bridge
You can use access points to create a point-to-point bridge between two
wired LANs. That is, you can have one access point wired to a primary
LAN in one building and have a second access point wired to a
secondary LAN in another building. This configuration lets wired and
wireless end devices in both buildings communicate with each other,
which can be useful in a campus environment or any other environment
where pavement or other objects prevent installation of a wired link.
This illustration shows two simple wireless networks that are connected
with access points that are acting as point-to-point bridges.
Point-to-point bridges send data from end devices on the secondary
LAN to the root access point via wireless hops. Wireless hops are formed
when data from end devices move from one access point to another
access point through the radio ports. The master radio in the point-to-
point bridge on the primary LAN transmits hello messages, which allow
the bridge on the secondary LAN to attach to the spanning tree in the
same way as access points.
If the access points are simply acting as a point-to-point bridge or if you
have an 802.11a network each access point only needs one radio. If you
have an 802.11b and you want the designated bridge to also be able to
communicate with wireless end devices (point-to-multipoint), the
designated bridge must be a dual radio access point. The designated
bridge master radio must match the end device radios and the station
radio must match the root master radio.
Data from wireless end devices should not go through more than three
wireless hops before it gets to an access point on the primary LAN.
Host
Primary LAN Secondary LAN
Root
Designated
bridge