I pulled this out the of on-line help from the 4102:
WDS & STP
Each access point
radio interface can be configured to operate in a bridge mode, which allows it
to
forward traffic directly to other access point units. To set up bridge links
between access point units, you must configure the Wireless Distribution System
(WDS) forwarding table by specifying the wireless MAC address of all units to
which you want to forward traffic. Up to six WDS bridge or repeater links can
be specified for each unit in the wireless bridge network. The Spanning Tree
Protocol (STP) can be used to detect and disable network loops, and to provide
backup links between bridges. This allows a wireless bridge to interact with
other bridging devices (that is, an STP-compliant switch, bridge or router) in
your network to ensure that only one route exists between any two stations on
the network, and provide backup links which automatically take over when a
primary link goes down.
WDS Settings:
Bridge Role allows you to
set each radio interface to operate in one of the following modes:
AP (Access
Point) configures the AP to communicate with wireless clients only,
providing
connectivity to a wired LAN. Bridge configures
the AP to a LAN-to-LAN mode as a bridge to other access points. The
"Parent" link to the root bridge must be configured. Up to five
other "Child" links are available to other bridges.Root-Bridge configures
the AP to operate as the root bridge in the wireless bridge network. Up to
six other "Child" links are available to other bridges in the
network.
Channel Auto Sync allows
the AP in the Bridge mode (the “Child” AP) to automatically reconnect with
its “Parent” AP (or the Root-Bridge) in the event that either the “Child”
or the “Parent” AP’s channel is changed. Default: Disabled.
Bridge Parent is the physical layer address of the root bridge, or the AP
connected to the root bridge. Enter the MAC address in the form: 12
hexadecimal digits (xx-xx-xx-xx-xx-xx).
Bridge Child
(1-8) is the physical layer address of other AP's that connected
to the root bridge. Enter the MAC address of each remote AP that is will
be connected in the LAN-to-LAN environment.
IMPORTANT: WDS
is only supported with the following authentication methods: Open, WEP and WPA
w/AES.
Spanning Tree
Protocol Settings:
The AP4102 uses 802.1d
Spanning Tree Protocol to prevent network loops. A loop can cause bridges to
continually forward multicast traffic and degrade network performance. In a
point-to-multipoint configuration it is
suggested to enable Spanning Tree. The
AP Spanning Tree function corrects loops by shutting down the port and possibly
shutting down a segment of the network.
Bridge: Enables or disables the
Spanning Tree Protocol on the wireless bridge. Default: Disable.Bridge
Priority: (1-65535) Selects
the root device, root port, and designated port. The AP with the highest
priority becomes the STP root AP. However, if all AP's have the same
priority, the AP with the lowest MAC address will then become the root
device. Default: 32769
Note: Lower numeric values indicate
higher priority.
Bridge Max Age: (6-40)
The maximum time (in seconds) a device can wait without
receiving a configuration message before attempting to reconfigure. All
device ports (except for designated ports) should receive configuration
messages at regular intervals. Any port that ages out STP information
(provided in the last configuration message) becomes the designated port
for the attached LAN. If it is a root port, a new root port is selected
from among the device ports attached to the network.
Default:
20 Minimum:
The higher of 6 or [2 x (Hello Time + 1)].Maximum:
The lower of 40 or [2 x (Forward Delay - 1)
Bridge Hello Time:
(1-10) The interval, in seconds, at which the root bridge transmits a
configuration message.
·
Default: 2
·
Minimum: 1
·
Maximum: The lower of 10 or [(Max. Message Age / 2) -1]
Bridge Forwarding Delay: (4-30) The maximum time (in seconds) this device waits
before changing states (for example., discarding to learning to
forwarding). This delay is required because every device must receive
information about topology changes before it starts to forward frames. In
addition, each port needs time to listen for conflicting information that
would make it return to a discarding state; otherwise, temporary data
loops might result.
·
Default:
15
·
Minimum:
The higher of 4 or [(Max. Message Age / 2) + 1]
·
Maximum:
30
802.11a/g/b and Ethernet Interface Settings:
Link Path Cost:
(1-65535) Used by STP to determine the best path between devices.
Therefore, lower values should be assigned to ports attached to faster
media, and higher values assigned to ports with slower media. (Path cost
takes precedence over port priority.)
·
Range: 1-65535
·
Default: Ethernet interface: 19; Wireless interface:
40
Link Port Priority: (0-255) Defines the
priority used for this port in the Spanning Tree Protocol. If the path
cost for all ports on a switch are the same, the port with the highest
priority (for example, lowest value) will be configured as an active link
in the spanning tree. This makes a port with higher priority less likely
to be blocked if the Spanning Tree Protocol is detecting network loops.
Where more than one port is assigned the highest priority, the port with
lowest numeric identifier will be enabled.
·
Default: 128
·
Range: 0-255, in steps of 16
Thanks,
Lou Goddard
Network Engineer
302-552-8053
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: Richard Applebee <[email protected]>
Sent: Thu, 7/22/2010 11:16am
To: Enterasys Customer Mailing List <[email protected]>
Subject: re:[enterasys] RoamAbout 4102 - Wireless Bridge Howto
Hi Cristiano -
We have never set them up as a backup link (and do not think they have that
functionality) but we use them as Wireless Distribution System (WDS) links to
buildings that we have a line of site to but no physical pathways. You could
tune Spanning Tree to prefer your optical link over the WDS link.
Richard
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