By: Roohul Amin MashwaniKardan Institute of Higher Education

Wireless Networks

Lecture 04

Configuring WDS

What is WDS?

A wireless distribution system (WDS) is a system enabling the wireless interconnection of access points in an IEEE 802.11 network.

It allows a wireless network to be expanded using multiple access points without the traditional requirement for a wired backbone to link them.

The notable advantage of WDS over other solutions is it preserves the MAC addresses of client frames across links between access points.[1]

An access point can be either a main, relay, or remote base station. A main base station is typically connected to the (wired) Ethernet.

A relay base station relays data between remote base stations, wireless clients or other relay stations to either a main or another relay base station.

A remote base station accepts connections from wireless clients and passes them on to relay stations or to main stations.

Connections between "clients" are made using MAC addresses rather than by specifying IP assignments.[citation needed]

All base stations in a wireless distribution system must be configured to use the same radio channel, method of encryption (none, WEP, or WPA) and the same encryption keys.

They may be configured to different service set identifiers. WDS also requires every base station to be configured to forward to others in the system.

WDS may also be considered a repeater mode because it appears to bridge and accept wireless clients at the same time (unlike traditional bridging). However, with this method, throughput is halved for all clients connected wirelessly.

How do I log into the web-based Utility (Management Page) of

TP-LINK wireless routerOpen the web browser and type the LAN IP

address of the router in the address bar, the default IP address of TP-LINK router is 192.168.1.1, and then press Enter.

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Type the username and password in the login page, the default username and password both are admin.

How to configure WDS function on TP-LINK 11n Routers

A Wireless Distribution System (WDS) is a system that enables the wireless interconnection of access points in an IEEE 802.11 network. It allows a wireless network to be expanded using multiple access points without the need for a wired backbone to link them, as is traditionally required. For more information about WDS, please refer to Wikipedia. Following is a simple solution guide about WDS.

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Note: The two device should have different IP addresses, here the IP of Root AP is 192.168.1.2 while TP-LINK 11n Router has an IP of 192.168.1.1.

To setup WDS with TP-LINK 11n routers, the following steps are

required:Step 1 Log into 11n router’s management page.

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Step 2 Go to Wireless -> Wireless Settings. Check Enable WDS. Then the page will show like below.

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Step 3 Change channel to match with the one of your root AP.

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Step 4 Click Search. On the pop-up window, find the SSID of your root AP, and hit Connect.

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Step 5 After Step 4, the router will turn you back to the previous page. The root AP’s SSID and some other parameters have been filled automatically. Then please configure the security settings to match the ones on the root AP

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Step 6 Click the Save button, and then go to the  DHCP-> DHCP Settings page. Choose Disable DHCP Server, and click Save button .

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Step 7 Please go to System Tools-> Reboot  page to reboot the unit.

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Step 8 Here until, all settings required by WDS function is completed. You can make a simple check by the Ping utility. If the ping proceeds successfully (which means the WDS performs properly), you will see the similar screen as below:

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Reference

For more information visit

http://www.tp-link.com/en/article/?id=227

Thank You