Wireless Access Point (WAP)
- Wireless technologies use radio waves as transmission media
- Radio systems use transmission and reception antennas tuned to a specific frequency for the transfer of signals
- Most wireless LANs (WLANs) are based on the IEEE 802.11 standards
- Most Wi-Fi networks are configured in what is technically referred to as infrastructure mode
- means that each client device (station) is configured to connect to the network via an access point (AP)
- in 802.11 documentation, this is referred to as an infrastructure Basic Service Set (BSS)
- MAC address of the AP’s radio is used as the Basic Service Set Identifier (BSSID)
- An access point can establish a wireless-only network
- can also work as a bridge to forward communications between the wireless stations and a wired network
- wired network is referred to as the distribution system (DS)
- access point will be joined to the network in much the same way as a host computer is—via a wall port and cabling to an Ethernet switch
- An enterprise network is likely to use Power over Ethernet (PoE) to power the AP over the data cabling
WAP Modes
- Fat Access Point
- contains all of the hardware and software needed to operate a wireless network
- can connect to it to configure
- Thin Access Point
- relies upon wireless controllers for
- configuration
- to serve as the brains of the wireless network
- function solely as radios