HostAp to HW-AP comm/bridging

[Jouni Malinen]

On Mon, Nov 25, 2002 at 09:53:06PM +0100, Pavel Kr?l wrote:

> as I understood from 10-12-2002 changelog, there is
> possibility setup layer2 bridge, when linux-hostap box is in
> Managed mode and HW AP (ie card with tertiary firmware) is
> in Master mode (ie driver accept 4-adr WDS frames).

Yes, assuming your HW AP knows how to use such mode.

> >From recent changelog, I read that 'added support for WDS
> frames for >>>Host AP<<< mode', so this mean that my
> linux-hostap box could be in Master mode (of course with
> recent 1.5.x secondary firmware) and HW AP in Station mode
> will be able to communicate or even better, bridge with its?

Hmm.. I would have to admit that I have not tested this at all. It can
be done with 1.5.x secondary firmware, but I'm not sure that the current
driver supports this. WDS links with another AP should be fine (i.e.,
neither one acting as a station). Having the other AP associate as a
station and then use 4-addr WDS frames might work, but it will probably
require manually adding the WDS link (iwpriv wds_add). In addition,
there might be something in the Host AP driver denying this kind of
link, since it was not designed to do that. Anyway, if you happen to
test this, please let me know if there are any problems and I'll try to
fix them.

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA