Transparently Bridge two Networks

Remote networks can be easily bridged using WDS feature of MikroTik RouterOS™. We will show it for the case when the networks are connected through Atheros wireless interface. Using EoIP, the can be extended to any other type of interfaces, like PPTP, CISCO/Aironet, Prism. WDS works only on Prism and Atheros based cards. Let us assume the following network setup:

Follow the steps below to create transparent bridge using WDS:

1. Make sure you have communication between MikroTik routers, i.e., one router is configured as server (AP), the other one as client (station). Configure wireless interface wlan1 on AP:

[admin@AP]> interface wireless set wlan1 ssid=mikrotik frequency=5805 \
\... mode=bridge wds-mode=dynamic disabled=no

Do the same configuration on Client wireless interface (wlan1)

[admin@Station] interface wireless> set wlan1 mode=station-wds ssid=mikrotik \
\... disabled=no

2. Check whether the WDS link is established:

[admin@AP] interface wireless wds> print
Flags: X - disabled, R - running, D - dynamic
0  RD name="wds1" mtu=1500 mac-address=00:0B:6B:31:02:4B arp=enabled
      disable-running-check=yes master-interface=wlan1
      wds-address=00:0B:6B:31:08:22
wds[admin@AP] interface wireless wds>

3. Create a bridge interface on AP and add ether1 interface to the bridge. The WDS interface will be added automatically to the bridge if you specify wds-default-bridge parameter:

[admin@AP]> interface bridge add name=wds-bridge
[admin@AP]> interface bridge port add interface=ether1 bridge=wds-bridge
[admin@AP]> interface wireless set wlan1 wds-default-bridge=wds-bridge

Do the same on the Client, and add ether1, wlan1 interfaces to the bridge

[admin@Client]> interface bridge add name=wds-bridge
[admin@Client]> interface bridge port add ether1 bridge=wds-bridge
[admin@Client]> interface bridge port add wlan1 bridge=wds-bridge

4. Add IP address on AP:

[admin@AP]> ip address add address=10.1.0.1/24 interface=wds-bridge

And on Client:

[admin@Client]> ip address add address=10.1.0.2/24 interface=wds-bridge

5. Test the link:

[admin@AP]> ping 10.1.0.2
10.1.0.2 64 byte ping: ttl=64 time=1 ms 
10.1.0.2 64 byte ping: ttl=64 time=1 ms
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1.0/1 ms
[admin@AP]>