Cisco Systems, Inc.
System and method for downlink OFDMA for reliable multicast and broadcast to workgroup bridge (WGB) bridged network

Abstract:

Systems and methods herein can convert downstream group addressed packets to unicast packets and send them to Workgroup Bridges (WGBs) by Downlink (DL) Multiple-User (MU) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) (DL-MU-OFDMA). A Wireless Controller (WLC)/Access Point (AP) can extend current Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) messages for broadcast and deploy Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) processing for multicast messages. The APs can maintain WGB entries for each group address. When there is a downstream broadcast packet received at the AP, the AP can search the entries in the domain and can build a 4-address unicast packet for each WGB, then transmit those converted packets in parallel by DL-OFDMA. After receiving those converted packets over the air, the WGB simply rebuilds 802.3 packets and forwards the 802.3 packets to the corresponding VLAN domain.