Its been a while since I last looked at the details of the OSI model. I am trying to troubleshoot and issue with operating my wireless card in monitor mode so thought I'd make sure I had a decent understanding of how wireless technology functions using the OSI model.
In a wired network I view the model as:
Layer 1 - the physical CAT5 wire
Layer 2 - frames are transported via a switch/hub using MAC addresses
Layer 3 - packets transport data via IP addresses
In a wireless network I view the model as:
Layer 1 - the wireless card and AP
Layer 2- frames are transported via the 802.11 network. Generally your computer and AP are configured with a certain SSID, Channel, and possible encryption so they can connect to the AP which is similar to the switch in a wired network.
Layer 3 - packets are transported via IP addresses
In general I view wireless networks similar to a Hub with one large collision domain. Channels/frequencies can limit the scope of these collision domains, but if your AP is close to and on the same channel of other AP's, your frames will "mingle" within the collision domain.
Sorry for the long winded discussion, but I am trying to better understand wireless so I can hopefully solve my original issue with using my card in monitor mode.
In a wired network I view the model as:
Layer 1 - the physical CAT5 wire
Layer 2 - frames are transported via a switch/hub using MAC addresses
Layer 3 - packets transport data via IP addresses
In a wireless network I view the model as:
Layer 1 - the wireless card and AP
Layer 2- frames are transported via the 802.11 network. Generally your computer and AP are configured with a certain SSID, Channel, and possible encryption so they can connect to the AP which is similar to the switch in a wired network.
Layer 3 - packets are transported via IP addresses
In general I view wireless networks similar to a Hub with one large collision domain. Channels/frequencies can limit the scope of these collision domains, but if your AP is close to and on the same channel of other AP's, your frames will "mingle" within the collision domain.
Sorry for the long winded discussion, but I am trying to better understand wireless so I can hopefully solve my original issue with using my card in monitor mode.