HostAP Repeater for Cisco Aironet WLAN

[Craig Thornton]

Hi,
 
I am trying to set up a wireless network that is capable of extending the
range of an existing WLAN based on Cisco Aironet 350 and 1100 AP's.  My
objective is to have a mesh network (via WDS) of HostAP nodes that can
interoperate (as Repeaters) with a Cisco WLAN. i.e., one or more HostAP
nodes must associate with an existing Cisco AP while also forming part
of the WDS. 

My setup is as follows:
 
HOSTAP NODE:
 - Soekris net4521
 - 128MB CF card with Pebble Linux (http://www.nycwireless.net/pebble/)
 - kernel 2.4.22 w/ hostap 0.0.4
 - Senao LR WLAN card - STA F/W 1.5.6 (4 address WDS)
 
CISCO WLAN:
 - Cisco Aironet 350 AP in AP/Master mode connected to wired infrastructure
 - Cisco Aironet 1100 AP in AP/Master mode connected to wired infrastructure
 
 
**** Questions ****
 
1)  Has anyone tried this before?  Have you been successful?  What problems
did you encounter?
 
2)  Is there a better way of doing this?
 
3)  Is one able to manually send out probe requests with the HostAP driver?
For example could a HostAP node associate with another AP as if it were a
station in Managed mode?
 
Thank you in advance for your help!!
 
Sincerely,
 
Craig Thornton