Main Wds Station; Repeater Wds Stations - Modecom MC-421 User Manual

WDS (Wireless Distribution System)
WDS stands for Wireless Distribution System. It enables the access points (APs) to be connected wirelessly. Integrated
Access Device can also provide you services of WDS.
Integrated Access Device that supports WDS does not support security systems like WEP, WPA or WPA-
Enterprise on a WDS network.
Note
Sometimes you want to establish a multi-access point wireless network in your home or office, but you don't have
Ethernet cabling running to the locations where you want to add the extra AP. After all, you may be using wireless
because you don't have wires in place already.
One way to overcome this problem is to use a system built into Wireless Gateway that is known as Wireless
Distribution System (WDS).
WDS basically creates a mesh network by providing a mechanism for access points to "talk" to each other as well as
sending data to devices associated with them.
WDS is based on some standardized 802.11 protocols, but there is no standardized way of implementing it
that works across different AP and router vendors. So if you have a Wireless Gateway in one location and you
want to create a WDS link to a other brand of router in another location (just to pick two brands at random),
Note
you probably won't be able to get it to work. You have your best luck when you use equipment from the same
manufacturer.
When you use WDS as a repeater system, as described below, it effectively halves the data rate for clients con-
nected to Integrated Wireless Gateway. That's because every bit of data needs to be sent twice (data is rece-
ived by the AP and then retransmitted).
Note
To configure WDS, you need to modify some settings on each AP within the network. Your exact steps (and the ver-
biage used) will vary from vendor to vendor. Generally, you'll see some settings like the following:

Main WDS station:

One of your WDS stations is the main base station for the WDS network. This AP is connected directly to your Internet
connection, or connected to your router via a wired connection. The main station is the bridge to your Internet con-
nection that all wireless traffic eventually flows through.

Repeater WDS stations:

In a simple, two-AP WDS network, the other "unwired" AP is a repeater. The repeater receives data from the main
base station and relays the data to the wireless clients associated to the repeater station (and vice versa for data co-
ming from the clients). If you have more than two APs, remote APs may be repeaters, or they may be relays that pro-
vide an intermediate stopping point for data if the repeater is too far away from the main station to communicate.
When you configure your main or base WDS station, take note of the channel you're set to and the ESSID or network
name of your network. If your AP has any kind of channel auto configuration function that changes channels based
on network conditions, be sure to disable this feature. If your main WDS station is also your network's router, make
sure it's set up to distribute IP addresses in the network.
Write down or otherwise take note of the MAC addresses of all of your WDS stations — many configuration
software systems require you to know these addresses to make the configuration settings work. Write down
the wireless MAC address (it's often on a sticker) and not the Ethernet MAC address.
Note
WLAN Router
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