Access Point Mode - Asus WL 320gE - Wireless Access Point User Manual

Chapter 3 - Software Configuration
3.5

Access Point Mode

In "Access Point" mode, the ASUS 802.11g AP operates as a MAC layer learning
bridge and forward packets between wireless mobile clients and the Ethernet
network.
In "Access Point" mode, the wireless LAN generally consists of one or more
802.11g/b Access Points and one or more wireless mobile clients that have an
802.11g/b adapter installed.
The ASUS 802.11g AP maintains a table of MAC addresses, which are located
either on the Ethernet network or on the radio network, and monitors the source
address of packets it receives. For example, if the ASUS 802.11g AP receives
a packet over its radio, it creates an entry in its table for the node that sent the
packet and labels the entry as a member of the radio network. The ASUS 802.11g
AP removes an entry from the table after five minutes of inactivity.
When the ASUS 802.11g AP receives a packet from the Ethernet network, it
compares the packet's destination address with the node addresses in its table.
If the packet's destination address is not in the table or if is listed in the table as a
member of the radio network, the ASUS 802.11g AP will forward the packet to the
wireless mobile clients. If the packet's destination address is listed in the table as a
member of the Ethernet network, the ASUS 802.11g AP will not forward the packet
to the wireless mobile clients. The ASUS 802.11g AP applies the same principles
to determine if a packet received over its radio should be forwarded to the Ethernet
network.
The ASUS 802.11g AP forwards all broadcast packets to wireless mobile clients.
Given this, the ASUS 802.11g AP can only support a limited amount of network
traffic. We recommend that you only use the ASUS 802.11g AP on networks that
contain less than 512 nodes.
The number of wireless mobile clients that can be supported by the ASUS
802.11g AP depends on the amount of information that each client exchanges in
the network. Hence, the number of clients that can be supported by one ASUS
802.11g AP will vary based on the applications in use and how frequently network
information is accessed.
2 ASUS 802.11g Access Point