Return-path: Received: from mail4.sea5.speakeasy.net ([69.17.117.6]:52988 "EHLO mail4.sea5.speakeasy.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751311AbXIECij (ORCPT ); Tue, 4 Sep 2007 22:38:39 -0400 Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2007 19:38:24 -0700 From: Jouni Malinen To: Johannes Berg Cc: linux-wireless , Michael Wu Subject: Re: bridge packets option Message-ID: <20070905023824.GE5273@jm.kir.nu> References: <1188405071.1757.5.camel@johannes.berg> <20070903235714.GT1835@jm.kir.nu> <1188915742.9942.33.camel@johannes.berg> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <1188915742.9942.33.camel@johannes.berg> Sender: linux-wireless-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, Sep 04, 2007 at 04:22:22PM +0200, Johannes Berg wrote: > On Mon, 2007-09-03 at 16:57 -0700, Jouni Malinen wrote: > > Kernel > > bridging code does not (or at least did not the last time I looked) > > allow packets to be bridged back to the same interface which would be > > needed for the case of two wireless stations which are associated to the > > same AP sending packets to each other. > > I was thinking more of routing in the unicast case, if a packet comes in > you'd have to route it back to wireless if the destination is there. > Isn't that possible? Well, it may be possible, but that would not be the way IEEE 802.11 access points normally work. AP is a layer 2 bridge and it should bridge the packets regardless of what ethertype is used. There is no need for it to keep up ARP tables for the associated stations to figure out where to route packets. Furthermore, I would rather not see ICMP redirects showing up on the wireless interface because IP routing needed to send the packet back to the same interface. I would assume that this can be disabled, but anyway, layer 2 bridge is the location that would be much close to what AP does between two associated wireless stations. -- Jouni Malinen PGP id EFC895FA