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A wireless distribution system is a system enabling the wireless interconnection of access points in an IEEE 802.11 network. It allows a wireless network to be expanded using multiple access points without the traditional requirement for a wired backbone to link them. The notable advantage of WDS over other solutions is that it preserves the MAC addresses of client frames across links between access points.
An access point can be either a main, relay, or remote base station.
All base stations in a wireless distribution system must be configured to use the same radio channel, method of encryption and the same encryption keys. They may be configured to different service set identifiers. WDS also requires every base station to be configured to forward to others in the system.
WDS may also be considered a repeater mode because it appears to bridge and accept wireless clients at the same time. However, with the repeater method, throughput is halved for all clients connected wirelessly. This is because Wi-Fi is an inherently half duplex medium and therefore any Wi-Fi device functioning as a repeater must use the Store and forward method of communication.