Wireless Bridging

What this chapter covers

Wireless Bridging is about joining two wired networks over a radio link so that they act as one.

A plain wireless station cannot do this, because it cannot pass the real addresses of the devices behind it. The chapter shows the ways around that limit and the trade offs of each.

The chapter follows the ninth part of the MTCWE syllabus. It has one topic with four methods, covered by three pages.

How the topics fit together

The methods are four answers to the same problem, and the right one depends on what you control.

The pages follow that choice:

• WDS bridging and station WDS covers the standard RouterOS answer for two RouterOS devices.
• Pseudobridge covers the fallback for a third party access point.
• MPLS and VPLS tunnel covers carrying Layer 2 over a routed wireless link.

A good habit is to ask three questions: who owns the access point, is the radio link bridged or routed, and must non IP traffic cross?

How to use these pages

Each topic page has the same shape, so you can skim for what you need.

• What it is: the idea in plain words.
• How it works: the mechanism, with diagrams and example commands.
• What to remember for the exam: the facts to memorise.
• Common mistakes: the classic traps.
• Check yourself: three questions to test your understanding.

The syllabus marks this topic as a lab. Build the same two site link three times, once with each method, and compare what each one allows. Look at the bridge host table every time, because it shows whether the original MAC addresses cross.

The comparison tables are worth learning. Exam questions often describe a situation and ask which method fits.