Transmit-only-Unicasts

Multicast and broadcast packets forwarded into a WLAN cell can consume a significant portion of the media bandwidth in that cell. Even if an access point (AP) employs optimization techniques such as ARP spoofing, IGMP/MLD snooping, or dynamic adjustment of the multicast bit rate, the fact remains that the majority of multicast and broadcast traffic in a congested core network is completely useless to the clients.

Assuming no multicast streaming to clients is desired, ARP requests are answered by the AP itself. Conversely, if pure IPv4 internet access is to be provided, it is possible to operate entirely without forwarding broadcast or multicast traffic into a WLAN cell – the AP can simply filter them out. IPv4 broadcast and multicast traffic associated with self-learning protocols such as Bonjour or NetBIOS is generally undesirable in networks intended to provide public internet access.