Manual:Wireless Station Modes

Overview

Wireless interface in any of station modes will search for acceptable access point and connect to it. The connection between station and AP will behave in slightly different way depending on type of station mode used, so correct mode must be chosen for given application and equipment. This article attempts to describe differences between available station modes.

Primary difference between station modes is in how L2 addresses are processed and forwarded across wireless link. This directly affects the ability of wireless link to be part of L2 bridged infrastructure.

If L2 bridging over wireless link is not necessary - as in case of routed or MPLS switched network, basic mode=station setup is suggested and will provide highest efficiency.

Availability of particular station mode depends on wireless-protocol that is used in wireless network. Please refer to applicability matrix for information on mode support in protocols. It is possible that connection between station and AP will be established even if mode that is not supported for given protocol is used. Beware that such connection will not behave as expected with respect to L2 bridging.

Applicability Matrix

The following matrix specifies station modes available for each wireless-protocol. Note that there are 2 columns for 802.11 protocol: 802.11 specifies availability of mode in "pure" 802.11 network (when connecting to any vendor AP) and ROS 802.11 specifies availability of mode when connecting to RouterOS AP that implements necessary proprietary extensions for mode to work.

	802.11	ROS 802.11	nstreme	nv2
station	X	X	X	X
station-wds		X	X	X
station-bridge				X