IEEE Recommended Practice for Multi-Vendor Access Point Interoperability via an Inter-Access Point Protocol Across Distribution Systems Supporting IEEE 802.11? Operation
The scope of this document is to describe recommended practices for implementation of an Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) on a Distribution System (DS) supporting ISO/IEC 8802-11:1999 and IEEE 802.11? wireless local access network (WLAN) links. The recommended DS utilizes an IAPP that provides the necessary capabilities to achieve multi-vendor Access Point (AP) interoperability within the DS. This IAPP is described for a DS consisting of IEEE 802 ? LAN components utilizing an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Internet Protocol (IP) environment. Throughout this recommended practice@ the terms ISO/IEC 8802-11:1999 @ IEEE 802.11 @ 802.11?@ and IEEE Std 802.11?-1999 are used interchangeably to refer to the same document@ ISO/IEC 8802-11:1999@ and its amendments and supplements published at the time this recommended practice was adopted. Purpose IEEE 802.11 speci?es the MAC and PHY layers of a WLAN system and includes the basic architecture of such systems@ including the concepts of APs and DSs. Implementations of these concepts were purposely not de?ned by IEEE 802.11 because there are many ways to create a WLAN system. Additionally@ many of the possible implementation approaches involve higher network layers. While this leaves great ?exibility in DS and AP functional design@ the associated cost is that physical AP devices are unlikely to interoperate across a DS. In particular@ the enforcement of the restriction that a station (STA) has a single association at a given time is unlikely to be achieved. As IEEE 802.11 systems have grown in popularity@ it has become clear that there are a small number of DS environments that comprise the bulk of the commercial and private WLAN system installations.This recommended practice speci?es the information to be exchanged between APs amongst themselves and higher-layer management entities to support the 802.11 DS functions. The information exchanges are speci- ?ed for DSs built on the IETF IP in a manner suf?cient to enable the interoperation of DSs containing APs from different vendors that adhere to the recommended practice.