Design of a High-Capacity Multihop Wireless LAN

The IEEE 802.11-based wireless LAN is currently a primary enabling technology for ubiquitous data access to data networks with a reasonably high bandwidth. Traditionally, 802.11-based wirelesses LANs are deployed in the infrastructure mode. Here, access points (AP) are deployed to cover a region and they are connected to a backbone distribution system (DS). A client device, such as a laptop or palmtop with an 802.11 interface, associates itself to an AP. APs connect to an infrastructure network (e.g., the Internet or an intranet) via the distribution system. The distribution system is usually a wired network, even though options exist in the standards for provisioning a wireless distribution system or WDS, where the APs are connected via wireless links.