Yet another question about bridgiing...

[Jim Thompson]

Pavel Roskin wrote:

>On Thu, 2006-03-16 at 09:46 +0200, Jar wrote:
>  
>
>>I understand this so that 4-addr frame is not part of the ieee802.11 standard for
>>STAs but nothing is relly preventing to use the 4-addr format with infrastructure
>>mode STA to build bridges etc. devices??
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, that's what the old MadWifi does as a substitute for WDS.  Of
>course, this is highly non-standard on both ends.
>
>  
>
First, that document is not part of the IEEE standard.

Second, all devices in an 802.11 network are STAs.  (APs are STAs with 
"access point" functions.)

In the IEEE standard, only APs have "distribution" functionality.

WDS is a "wireless distribution" function.

Therefore only APS "have" WDS.  

Pendantic?  Yes.

And yes, nothing really "prevents" a STA from sending and receiving 
4-address frames.

(Speaking to the previous therad, a carefull look at the docuement, and 
a bit of knowledge that only addr2 is ever ACKed (if any ACK is sent) 
should reveal why the 4-address frame format is necessary.)

Jim