【My Study Note】Wireless Network Configurations
Wireless Network Configurations
There are a few main ways that a wireless network can be configured.
There are ad-hoc networks where nodes all speak directly to each other. There are WLANS (wireless LANS) where one or more access points act as a bridge between a wireless and a wired network. And there are mesh networks which are kind of a hybrid of the two.
Ad-hoc networks
Ad-hoc networks are the simplest of the three, in an ad-hoc network, there isn’t really any supporting network infrastructure. Every device involved with the network communicates with every other device within range and all nodes help pass along messages.
Even though they’re the most simple, ad-hoc networks aren’t the most common type of wireless network, but they do have some practical applications.
Some smartphones can establish ad-hoc networks with other smartphones in the area so that people can exchange photos, video or contact information.
You’ll also sometimes see ad-hoc networks used in industrial or warehouse settings, where individual pieces of equipment might need to communicate with each other, but not with anything else.
Finally, ad-hoc networks can be powerful tools during disaster situations. If a natural disaster like an earthquake or hurricane knocks out all of the existing infrastructure in an area, disaster relief professionals can use an ad-hoc network to communicate with each other while they perform search and rescue efforts.
WLAN (wireless LAN)
The most common type of wireless network you’ll run into in the business world is a WLAN (wireless LAN).
A wireless LAN consists of one or more access points, which act as bridges between the wireless and wired networks.
The wired network operates as a normal LAN, like the types we’ve already discussed, the wired LAN contains the outbound internet link.
In order to access resources outside of the WLAN, wireless devices would communicate with access points. They then forward traffic along to the gateway router, where everything proceeds like normal.
mesh networks
Mesh networks are kind of like ad-hoc networks, since lots of the devices communicate with each other wirelessly, forming a mesh.
If you were to draw lines for all the links between all the nodes, most mesh networks you’ll run into are made up of only wireless access points and will still be connected to a wired network.
This kind of network lets you deploy more access points to the mesh without having to run a cable to each of them. With this kind of setup, you can really increase the performance and range of a wireless network.