As routing and MAC protocol runs in coordination, the choice of MAC is an important criterion. Most of them are unaware of MAC Protocols, which affect the relative performance of routing protocols considered in different network scenarios. The majority of the research is focused towards coping up with the node mobility, network density, energy reduction, routing and control overhead minimization and increasing the throughput. There have been many research works comparing the performance of routing protocols under varying conditions and constraints. Since nodes in such networks can leave or enter any time development of a routing protocol that can respond quickly to underlying dynamic topology and utilizing the available bandwidth efficiently is a research challenge. This is fundamental element for troubleshooting and analysis of wireless frames.Mobile Ad hoc Network is an autonomous system of mobile nodes that utilize multi-hop radio relaying and are capable of operating with any support from fixed centralized infrastructure. Knowing and understanding what roles of the MAC addresses are in the wireless frames is very important for the wireless network engineer. Eventually the Aruba IAP Mesh Point will process the frame and send it to the mobile client using 2.4 GHz radio, where the client is associated.Īddress 1 – RA, f0:5c:19:65:64:30 – Aruba IAP Mesh Point – BSSIDĪddress 2 – TA, f0:5c:19:65:60:f1 – Aruba IAP Mesh Portal – BSSIDĪddress 3 – DA, cc:44:63:1b:2d:fa – mobile client’s MAC addressĪddress 4 – SA, 74:8e:f8:4f:02:76 – DG – WLC port’s MAC address Here it is an ICMP echo response as a data payload, which was sent from the default gateway, which is the wireless controller ( source address) from the Aruba IAP Mesh Portal ( transmitter address) on 5GHz radio to the Aruba IAP Mesh Point ( receiver address) on 5GHz radio as a point-to-point bridge to the final destination, which is the mobile client ( destination address). The mobile client is associated to 2.4 GHz radio of the Aruba IAP Mesh Point.
Management and control frames are dedicated to wireless networking only and that’s why we have toDS=0 and fromDS=0.Īddress 1 – RA=DA, ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff – broadcast to all mobile clientsĪddress 2 – TA=SA, 84:24:8d:c1:24:20 – AP BSSIDĪddress 3 – BSSID, 84:24:8d:c1:24:20 – AP BSSIDĪ wireless data frame is being sent from a mobile client to wired network.Įxample: ICMP echo request ping test from the mobile client ( source and transmitter address) via the AP ( receiver address and BSSID) to the default gateway, which is the wireless controller ( destination address).Īddress 1 – RA=BSSID, 84:24:8d:c1:24:20 – AP BSSIDĪddress 2 – TA=SA, cc:44:63:1b:2d:fa – mobile client’s MAC addressĪddress 3 – DA, 74:8e:f8:4f:02:76 – DG – WLC port’s MAC addressĪ wireless data frame is being sent from the wired network to the mobile client associated to the AP.Įxample: ICMP echo response ping test from the default gateway, which is the wireless controller ( source address) via the AP ( transmitter address and BSSID) to the mobile client ( receiver and destination address).Īddress 1 – RA=DA, cc:44:63:1b:2d:fa – mobile client’s MAC addressĪddress 2 – TA=BSSID, 84:24:8d:c1:24:20 – AP BSSIDĪddress 3 – SA, 74:8e:f8:4f:02:76 – DG – WLC port’s MAC address I will present in more details what MAC addresses are used in each of the scenario based on the setup from my lab.Īs an example, simple beacon frame, which is originated from the AP radio MAC address ( BSSID, transmitter and source addresses) to all mobile clients ( receiver and destination addresses). In a 802.11 Frame Control field, there are 2 important fields, which indicates in which direction the connection goes: to DS and from DS fields. In most of the occasions 3 x addresses will be used, however in point-to-point links or mesh networks we will see 4 x addresses. BSSID is a Layer 2 identifier of the BSS.
RA is a MAC address of the receiving 802.11 radio.TA is a MAC address of the transmitting 802.11 radio.DA is a MAC address of the final destination (wired or wireless).SA is a MAC address of the original sender (wired or wireless).In wireless networking in a wireless frame there are 5 x MAC addresses: source address (SA), destination address (DA), transmitter address (TA), receiver address (RA) and basic service set identifier (BSSID): In wired networking in a wired frame there are only 2 x MAC addresses: source address and destination address. As the technology works in Layer 1 and 2, everything which is above in OSI model is considered as a data payload and is encrypted when encryption is enabled.
It translates a wireless frame with data payload to a wired frame with data payload. An Access Point acts as a portal between wireless connection and wired connection.