Wireless Access

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Access network design for branch, remote, outdoor, and campus locations with HPE Aruba Networking access points and mobility controllers.
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are broadcasts clients see from the other clients or the controller?

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  • 1.  are broadcasts clients see from the other clients or the controller?

    Posted Apr 02, 2016 05:26 PM

    I may be asking the most newb question here, but let's say I ran a wireshark capture on a wifi interface and was connected to an SSID many other users use.

     

    I see numerous broadcast packets from other clients.  Several thousand per minute, in fact.  Are these broadcasts actually from the clients, ie. a person in the cubicle next to me sends a broadcast and I pick it up, or is it sent to the controller first?

    Does the controller re-broadcast these packets? (My belief this is the case) If so, what kind of impact does this have on controller/ap/wireless performance?

    Would enabling "Drop Broadcast and Unknown Multicast Traffic" feature under VAP help increase performance?

     

    Thank you for any input.  I know it is a relatively newb question to ask, but I'd like to know the way packets like these are processed.



  • 2.  RE: are broadcasts clients see from the other clients or the controller?
    Best Answer

    EMPLOYEE
    Posted Apr 02, 2016 05:29 PM
    Broadcasts are from wired and wireless clients. The controller replicates broadcasts to every access point that has a user on the vlan with the broadcasts.

    Turning on drop broadcast and multicast will increase performance, yes.