WDS

Wireless Distribution System

Wireless Distribution System

A Wireless Distribution System (WDS) is an interconnection system that allows wireless access points in an IEEE 802.11 network. It allows a wireless network extended across multiple access points without the need for a trunk cable, as is traditionally required. The notable advantage of WDS over other solutions is that it preserves the MAC addresses of client packets across links between access points.

An access point can be a main, relay or remote base station. A main base station is typically connected to the Ethernet cable. A relay base station or repeater transmits data between remote base stations, wireless clients or other major stations or a relay from another base station. A remote base station accepts connections from wireless clients and passes them to relay or main stations. Connections between "clients" MAC addresses are used instead of IP addresses.

All base stations in a wireless distribution system must be configured to use the same radio channel, the encryption method (none, WEP or WPA) and encryption keys. They can be configured for different service identifiers established. WDS also requires that each base station must be configured to relay to others in the system.

WDS can be also called repeater mode because it seems to bridge and accept wireless clients at once (unlike the normal bridges). It should be noted, however, that performance in this method is halved for all clients connected wirelessly.

WDS can be used to provide two modes of wireless connectivity AP-AP:

1. WDS wireless bridge where the AP can only communicate with each other and do not allow wireless clients or stations can access
2. Wireless Repeater where APs communicate with each other and with wireless stations

Two disadvantages to using WDS are:

1. The maximum effective wireless performance is reduced by half after the first relay (jump) is made. For example, in the case of two routers connected via WDS, and the communication is between a computer that is connected to a router and a laptop that connects wireless using the router's access point B performance is reduced half, because router B has to relay information during communication of the two parties. However, in the case of communications between a computer that is connected to a router and a computer that is connected to router B, the performance is reduced by half, since there is no need to retransmit the information.
2. Encryption keys dynamically rotating asginadas usually are not supported in a WDS connection. This means that Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and other technologies dynamic key assignment in most cases can not be used, though WPA using pre-shared keys is possible. This is due to the lack of standardization in this area, which can be solved with the upcoming 802.11s standard. As a result only static WEP or WPA key can be used in a WDS connection, including any station that is associated with an AP WDS repeater.

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