LAYER 2 ADDRESS MANAGEMENT IN 3 ADDRESS ONLY CAPABLE ACCESS POINTS IN NETWORKS WITH RELAYS

摘要

During uplink traffic, a map is formed between the MAC address and an upper layer identifier of each station of a communications network. When a downlink unicast packet is received, the identifier is compared to the map to select a corresponding MAC address. The packet having the selected MAC address is delivered to the station. During uplink, the MAC address of the station generating the packet is replaced with the MAC address of the relay receiving the packet. A device receiving an uplink multicast packet is assigned a temporary MAC address which remains valid during a known period. The device replaces the MAC address of the station generating the multicast packet with the temporary MAC address to generate a new packet that is transferred up the link. A downlink packet that includes the temporary MAC address and is received during the first time period is delivered as a response packet.