From owner-freebsd-mobile Thu Nov 15 12:12: 3 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from dmlb.org (pc1-camb6-0-cust228.cam.cable.ntl.com [62.253.135.228]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0FFF637B422 for ; Thu, 15 Nov 2001 12:11:33 -0800 (PST) Received: from dmlb by dmlb.org with local (Exim 3.33 #1) id 164Sr9-0003pk-00; Thu, 15 Nov 2001 20:11:27 +0000 Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.3 [p0] on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20011112164812.A444@cobweb.example.org> Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 20:11:27 -0000 (GMT) From: Duncan Barclay To: Marco Molteni Subject: Re: an and wi ad-hoc talking Cc: mobile@freebsd.org Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Hi Marco Great a standards debate! On 12-Nov-01 Marco Molteni wrote: > On 2001-11-11, Duncan Barclay wrote: >> BTW, >> >> I think "association" is not defined for ad-hoc mode. >> >> >From 802.11-1999a >> >> 3.4 association: The service used to establish access point/station >> (AP/STA) mapping and enable STA invo-cation >> of the distribution system services (DSSs). >> >> There is no AP in an ad-hoc network. > > In my opinion the 802.11 standards are often unclear in details, for > example in the definition of many terms. > > Anyway, from my reading and understanding, there is always "association", > no matter in which mode. > > In IBSS (ad hoc or, if you prefer, peer to peer), each STA has an > association with each other STA in the IBSS. I disagree - there is not an association between STAs. There is maybe an association for each STA with a network entity called the IBSS, or the STA that happens to be generating the beacon. > In BSS (infrastructure), each STA has only one association, with the AP, > while the AP has one association per STA. I don't belive that the AP associates with the STA. > I think I can dig out this alternative description from the standard :-) My understanding is based on what the devices need to do when associating. I like to think of association as the act of a STA finding a beacon and starting to follow it. The beacon does not need to know about the STA - for example in an ad-hoc network no information is exchanged between and peers when a STA associates with the IBSS. There is for an BSS/ESS. I will ask the guys at work who write 802.11 stacks what they think. I just design the radio chips and stay away from the complexities of the protocol stack. > /marco > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message > Duncan --- ________________________________________________________________________ Duncan Barclay | God smiles upon the little children, dmlb@dmlb.org | the alcoholics, and the permanently stoned. dmlb@freebsd.org| Steven King To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message