Wireless bridging in a hybrid communication network

摘要

A hybrid device can be configured to use WLAN communication links for bridging network traffic between any pair of network devices in a hybrid communication network, irrespective of whether the bridged network devices support WLAN communication. The hybrid device receives a first data frame in a first frame format for transmission to a destination device. The hybrid device accesses its hybrid forwarding tables and identifies a transmit interface from which to transmit the first data frame for transmission to the destination device. If the transmit interface is a WLAN interface, WLAN forwarding tables associated with the WLAN transmit interface are accessed to identify a receiving WLAN device to which the first data frame should be transmitted. The WLAN transmit interface converts the first data frame into a second data frame in a WLAN frame format and transmits the second data frame to the receiving WLAN device.

主权项

1. A method for wireless bridging comprising:
receiving, at a first network interface of a hybrid device, a first data frame in a first frame format for transmission to a destination device of a hybrid communication network; determining to forward the first data frame via a wireless network interface of the hybrid device based, at least in part, on a hybrid forwarding table associated with a hybrid layer of the hybrid device, wherein the hybrid forwarding table associates the wireless network interface with a destination address of the first data frame; determining to forward the first data frame to a network device of the hybrid communication network based, at least in part, on a wireless forwarding table associated with the wireless network interface, wherein the wireless forwarding table associates a receive interface of the network device with the destination address; and generating a second data frame in accordance with a wireless frame format for transmission to the network device based, at least in part, on the first data frame, the hybrid device, and the network device.