ethernet multicast per AP?

[ericgarnel]

Using the wcs 4402 controllers. we can enable multicast under the general properties which affects all APs connected to it. Is there a way to have multicast support for just a few APs? We have some mac users that want to run "bonjour" (formerly rendevous) and the app relies on multicast being enabled, however, it puts an extra load on the wireless network

[scottmac]

It's my understanding from a class that multicasts in the LWAPP system are handled externally to the LWAPP tunnel (i.e., through the routers as "plain old" multicasts.

It's that recollection is correct, then you can control the multicasts only to those zones that you want to propagate them using PIM.

True or not, here's a list of links from the main Cisco site with some details about setting up multicast groups on the LWAPP system.

A "group" is a specific multicast address that would limit the multicasts to specific LWAPS / zones.

http://www.cisco.com/pcgi-bin/search/search.pl?searchPhrase=lwapp+multicast&nv=Search+All+cisco.com%23%23cisco.com&nv=Technical+Support+%26+documentation%23%23cisco.com%23TSD&language=en&country=US&accessLevel=Guest&siteToSearch=cisco.com

Good Luck

Scott

[ericgarnel]

Thanks for the info. However, 90% of the users never leave the subnet/vlan to communicate to each other. Many are even on the same APs.

We have 80 cisco 1020 aps, 4 cisco 4400 controllers using lwapp in L2 mode. The install is in a building approximately 880,000 sq ft and the wireless coverage (including the perimeter) is over 1 million sq ft.

(also have 4 vivato panels for large exihibit areas - which will soon be replaced with 1020 AP units -- no comments please).

The current client is using 1 ssid for all their guests and many of them are macs which use apps such as bonjour which is a multicast IM client to find each other & communicate.

per this link http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps6366/products_configuration_guide_chapter09186a008052d55b.html

multicast in multicast mode only works in L3 lwapp mode. This will not work for us at this time as I cannot change the mode at the present time and will have to wait for a maintenance window.