Technical basics   
4.6 MAC-based communication 
  SCALANCE W780/W740 to IEEE 802.11n Web Based Management 
56  Configuration Manual, 08/2018, C79000-G8976-C267-13 
 
Frames sent by the client to the access point always have the MAC address of the WLAN 
client as the source MAC address. In the "learning table" of the access point there is 
therefore only the MAC address of the WLAN client. 
MAC mode "Automatic", "Manual" and "Own" 
If the MAC address of a device connected to the client is adopted (Automatic) or is set 
manually (Manual), both the MAC-based and the IP-based frames find their destination for 
precisely this device. If the MAC address of the Ethernet interface of the WLAN client is used 
(Own), the MAC-based and IP-based frames only reach the WLAN client. 
The access point checks whether the destination MAC address matches the MAC addresses 
of the connected clients. Since a WLAN client can only use a MAC address, communication 
at the MAC address level (ISO/OSI layer 2) can be to a maximum of one node downstream 
from the client or the client itself. 
With IP Mapping, several nodes downstream from a client can be addressed based on the IP 
protocol. The IP packets are broken down according to an internal table and forwarded to the 
connected devices. 
Maximum possible number of Ethernet nodes with layer 2 communication downstream from 
the client: 1 
Notes on the "Automatic" setting: 
●  As long as there is no link on the Ethernet interface, the device uses the MAC address of 
the Ethernet interface so that it can be reached in this status. In this status, the device 
can be found using the Primary Setup Tool and configured with WBM or CLI. 
●  As soon as there is a link on the Ethernet interface, the device adopts the source MAC 
address of the first received frame. 
 
Note 
From the moment that the device
 adopts another MAC address (manually or 
automatically), the device no longer responds to queries of the Primary Setup Tool when 
the query is received over the WLAN interface. Queries of the PST over the Ethernet 
interface continue to be replied to.
 
MAC mode "Layer 2 Tunnel" 
The WLAN client uses the MAC address of the Ethernet interface for the WLAN interface.  
The access point is also informed of the MAC addresses connected to the Ethernet interface 
of the WLAN client. This makes it possible to enter the MAC addresses of these devices in 
the "learning table" of the access point. The access point can forward MAC-based frames for 
the devices downstream from the client to the appropriate client. 
In much the same way as with WDS, a separate port is created for the L2T client over which 
the Ethernet frames are sent without changing the destination MAC address. 
Maximum possible number of Ethernet nodes downstream from the client: 8