Wireless Distribution System (Wds) And Spanning Tree Protocol (Stp) - HP 530 Management Manual

Special Features

Wireless Distribution System (WDS) and Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)

Wireless Distribution System (WDS) and
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP)
The Access Point 530 includes Wireless Distribution System (WDS) support
allowing wireless connectivity between access points instead of a wired
Ethernet connection. An Access Point 530 can be located where there is no
available Ethernet connection and can still provide wireless network connec-
tivity to stations using a wireless uplink to another Access Point 530. You can
also use a pair of Access Point 530 units to implement a point-to-point
"wireless bridge", connecting two physically separated Ethernet subnets
together without a cable connection between them.
When implementing a WDS link, the recommended practice is to dedicate one
of the two radios in the Access Point 530 to servicing the WDS link. It is not
recommended that the same WDS radio be configured to support wireless
stations, although it is possible to do so. When a radio is configured to support
both WDS and wireless stations, the data-handling capacity of the radio must
be split between these two separate activities. Thus, any wireless station
activity on the WDS radio reduces the data-handling capacity of the WDS link
for passing traffic from wireless stations associated with the radio.
In network configurations with multiple WDS links, loops might be formed
that degrade network performance. Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) automati-
cally identifies any potential network loops and dynamically manages
network traffic to avoid performance degradation. It is recommended that you
enable STP whenever WDS links are configured, unless you are assured that
loops cannot occur in your network configuration. On the Access Point 530,
STP is automatically enabled. For STP to operate properly, the switch to which
the access point is connected also must have STP enabled.
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