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.