Technical
WDS may provide two modes of wireless AP-to-AP connectivity:
- Wireless bridging, in which WDS APs communicate only with each other and don't allow wireless clients or stations (STA) to access them
- Wireless repeating, in which APs communicate with each other and with wireless STAs
Two disadvantages to using WDS are:
- The maximum wireless effective throughput may be halved after the first retransmission (hop) being made. For example, in the case of two APs connected via WDS, and communication is made between a computer which is plugged into the Ethernet port of AP A and a laptop which is connected wirelessly to AP B. The throughput is halved, because AP B has to retransmit the information during the communication of the two sides. However, in the case of communications between a computer which is plugged into the Ethernet port of AP A and a computer which is plugged into the Ethernet port of AP B, the throughput is not halved since there is no need to retransmit the information. Dual band/radio APs may avoid this problem, by connecting to clients on one band/radio, and making a WDS network link with the other.
- Dynamically assigned and rotated encryption keys are usually not supported in a WDS connection. This means that dynamic Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and other dynamic key assignment technology in most cases cannot be used, though WPA using pre-shared keys is possible. This is due to the lack of standardization in this field, which may be resolved with the upcoming 802.11s standard. As a result only static WEP or WPA keys may be used in a WDS connection, including any STAs that associate to a WDS repeating AP.
Recent Apple base stations allow WDS with WPA, though in some cases firmware updates are required. Firmware for the Renasis SAP36g super access point and most third party firmware for the Linksys WRT54G(S)/GL support AES encryption using WPA2-PSK mixed-mode security, and TKIP encryption using WPA-PSK, while operating in WDS mode. However, this mode may not be compatible with other units running stock or alternate firmware.
Read more about this topic: Wireless Distribution System
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