Wireless Distribution System

Wireless Distribution System, WDS, is a feature that allows wireless access points to interconnect wirelessly.

WDS provides 2 modes of wireless access point to access point connectivity. These are:

• Wireless bridging – whereby designated WDS access points interconnect without allowing other wireless clients or stations to connect. Possible application includes linking 2 office buildings to create a single network.

• Wireless with access point mode – whereby WDS access points interconnect with each other and also provide wireless access to other clients and stations. This allows businesses to not only bridge 2 office locations but at the same time, provide wireless access at each location. This is particularly useful using dual-band capable access points, as you can use one frequency to bridge and the other frequency to provide wireless access.

WDS provides an extremely flexible and cost effective way to link or expand wireless connectivity in offices and buildings.

Wireless bridging technology has been around since the late 1990’s. The cost of implementing such a setup remained artificially inflated until 2002, when D-Link provided a free upgrade to an access point which brought WDS features to the masses. Since then, D-Link has been offering WDS as a standard feature on all indoor business access points as well as on all current range of outdoor business access points.