Overlay star network topology

Question

I am trying to accommodate the following situation and am looking for guidance on whether the topology I am envisioning is possible, what are its implications and what else I should be thinking about. I am new to networking and, thus, have a lot of confusion/questions.

I have n wireless devices positioned around a room. I want another wireless device d1 to be able to form a network with these n devices such that d1 has a direct route to each other device. Basically this is a star graph with d1 at the center. Is this possible? I want a packet from d1 to r1 to not need to route through some intermediary node. I know they can form an ad hoc network, but then I have no guarantees about direct routes.

My real problem is that I want to have an arbitrary number of d's {d1..dn} where each di is the center of its own star graph with each r1..rn.

If all of these devices are in a network together, can I send ethernet/Wi-Fi frames directly to MAC addresses?

Answer 1

Layer-2 protocols that use MAC addresses, where you have bridges, send frames directly to the MAC address of the destination host. The frames may pass through one or more bridges to get to the destination host. That is the case with ethernet switches or Infrastructure Wi-Fi WAPs.

As Ron Trunk pointed out, frames will pass through a WAP in infrastructure mode, but the frames are addressed with the destination host's MAC address.

I want another wireless device d1 to be able to form a network with these n devices such that d1 has a direct route to each other device.

You seem to be confusing the network layers. Routers, not an end-device will determine the route a packet takes, and it is usually the most direct route. Routing happens at layer-3, and it connects different LANs. Frames will be address with the router's MAC address and go to the router (gateway), the frames will be stripped off the packets at the router, and new frames applied for the next LAN.

A MAC address is only valid on the LAN where the host with that MAC address is, and a host on a different LAN has no idea what the MAC address of a host on a different LAN is.