WDS-related possibly silly question

[martopg]

So I tried searching for the answer to this but couldn't find much...

I know with dual-band n APs, each client can only use a single band at a time. Is this also true in a WDS scenario with two dual-band wireless routers?

If you could use WDS on both bands at the same time, that would be really cool as you would have a bunch more bandwidth, but I'm not sure if that's possible. Does anyone know?

 

[thiggins]

All STAs, whether normal or WDS support one association at a time.

 

[martopg]

That makes sense, but doesn't a dual-band router/AP have two STAs (one for each band)? I know you can do WDS on one band and have non-WDS clients on the other band which I think is multiple associations. It seems to me like it would be more of a logic issue within the router firmware: it would have to figure out how to do 'link aggregation' of the two WDS connections and it sounds like there's nothing out there that supports that.

 

[thiggins]

Simultaneous dual-band routers have two APs (Access Points), not STAs (STA is a Station, i.e. client device).

APs of course support multiple associations. Clients support one association at a time.

In re-reading your original question, the answer is Yes. If you have two simultaneous dual-band routers that both support WDS, then you could form WDS links on both bands. I don't know, however, how traffic flow across the two links would be handled. There are no routers or APs I know of that do link aggregation of multiple WDS links.

 

[stevech]

two WiFi routers = two WAN ports.
Which WAN port connects to the modem? ? ?

Answer: one of the WiFi routers' WAN port goes unused and it is configured as an Access Point, whose LAN port connects to a LAN port on the other router whose WAN port does connect to the modem.