Wireless Bridges - Landmark in Telecommunication Industry
The term "wireless" has become a generic and all-encompassing word used to describe communications in which electromagnetic waves or RF (Radio frequency) carry a signal over part or the entire communication path. Wireless operations permit services such as long range communications that are impossible or impractical to implement with the use of wires. The term is commonly used in the telecommunications industry to refer to telecommunications systems like radio transmitters and receivers, remote controls, computer networks, network terminals etc. which use some form of energy to transfer information without the use of wires. Information is transferred in this manner over both short and long distances. The technology is commonly known as Wi-Fi which stands for “Wireless Fidelity”.
A Wi-Fi hotspot can cover a large area and enable the users to get access to the internet within its range. Telecommunication is the assisted transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, this may have involved the use of smoke signals, drums, flags, or heliographs. Early inventors in the field of telecommunication include Antonio Meucci, Alexander Graham Bell, Guglielmo Marconi and John Logie Baird.
Wireless bridges are generally at each end of a point-to-point link such as those which interconnects two buildings. A bridge has a wired port that connects to a network and a wireless port that interfaces with a transceiver. The bridge receives packets on one port and then retransmits them on another port. A bridge will not start retransmission until it receives a complete packet and because of this, stations on either side of a bridge can transmit packets simultaneously without causing collisions. In general terms a bridge is basically a structure which is built to span a gorge or any other physical obstacle, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle and thus a wireless bridge works on similar patterns.
Some bridges re-transmit every packet on the opposite port whether or not the packet is moving toward a station located on the opposite network. A learning bridge, which is more common, examines the destination address of every packet to determine whether it should forward the packet based on a decision table that the bridge builds over time. This increases efficiency because the bridge will not re-transmit a packet if it knows that the destination address is on the same side of the bridge as the sending address. Access points connect multiple users on a wireless LAN to each other and to a wired network but it cannot connect a network to a network. Whereas, wireless bridges, connect networks and are often less expensive than access points. A bridge enables you to wirelessly connect a group or cluster of users, actually a network, to an access point.
Wireless bridges are a very practical, easy, and in most cases inexpensive way to connect Ethernet LANs or extend the range of existing WLANs. They are quick to set up and easy to configure, making them an ideal choice to quickly set up voice and data networks. There are many websites available, on the internet, which have detailed information on wireless bridges which would help you to gather more information on this subject.
