Comparing Bridging, Repeating, Point-to-Point, and Point-to-Multipoint

Comparing Bridging, Repeating, Point-to-Point, and Point-to-Multipoint

These terms are about connecting parts of local networks which are often a distance apart.

If your network is not physically close together, say, perhaps, it goes across floors or to distant rooms, then you have various options:

Create a wired network, running cables the whole distance.
Create a wireless network, buying powerful equipment that broadcasts from a main antenna over a large area.
Create a wireless network, buying several pieces of less powerful equipment, leaving some areas with weak coverage.

In practice, it's often expensive and inconvenient to do the first. The second alternative grows very expensive after a certain distance. The third alternative is often the most practical, cheapest, and most flexible, since there's rarely a need to cover every square foot of a home or building with network access.

Common reasons for chosing the third alternative are:

There's a large area between two parts of local networks that don't need wireless coverage.
Your network needs to go through the air between buildings.
Your network may expand in unpredictable directions (for example in a shared office environment).
You want to focus a strong signal in one limited area.

Bridging and repeating are ways to jump the gap. When access points are used as bridges, that's the only function they have: their antennas aren't available to connect to a computer's adapters, for example. Point-to-point bridging is when one access point talks directly to one other. Point-to-multipoint bridging is when an access point talks directly to more than one access point.

Repeating using access points is another way to jump the gap — but here the access points can also be used to talk to other wireless clients. That is, the access point could also talk directly to your laptop's adapter.

It might seem like repeating gets you the best of both worlds, but the limited bridging approach may be easier to configure and control. For example, bridges and repeaters must use the same channel. If you have areas where two repeaters are broadcasting strongly to the same place inbetween — the interference may cause a drop in performance. Regardless, an access point that is only used to transmit to another access point will be faster in dense traffic situations than one that also has to talk with adapters.