On Tue, Mar 06, 2001 at 11:29:18PM -0500, Unger, Larry G scribbled: > Take a look at ... http://www.wi-fi.com/downloads/IEEE_80211_Primer.pdf ... That is helpful and explains another feature of an AP that differentiates it from a plain ethernet-to-wireless bridge: > In most instances, the BSS contains an Access Point (AP). > The main function of an AP is to form a bridge between > wireless and wired LANs. The AP is analogous to a > basestation used in cellular phone networks. When an AP > is present, stations do not communicate on a peer-to-peer > basis. All communications between stations or between a > station and a wired network client go through the AP. > AP�s are not mobile, and form part of the wired network > infrastructure. A BSS in this configuration is said to > be operating in the infrastructure mode. > Roaming: > Roaming is perhaps the least defined feature among those > discussed in this article. The standard does identify the > basic message formats to support roaming, but everything > else is left up to network vendors. In order to fill the > void, the Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) was jointly > developed by Aironet, Lucent Technologies, and Digital > Ocean. Among other things, IAPP extends multi-vendor > interoperability to the roaming function. It addresses > roaming within a single ESS and between two or more ESSs. [reprinted without permission] So, an AP is the _only_ machine to which a client talks, it does not talk to other clients on it's LAN. Also, APs use IAPP to allow roaming, which a regular bridge would be incapable of. Additionally, before this discussion found it's way to the LRP list, it was said that communications between client and AP are not allowed to be picked up by other clients, protected with a password-like name [and some sort of encryption?]. An AP is at least those functions in addition to a bridge. > Larry -- rick -- A mind is like a parachute... it only works when it's open. ICQ# 1590117 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (home) Help with LRP: http://lrp.c0wz.com Home page: http://www.c0wz.com _______________________________________________ Leaf-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/leaf-devel
