Reliable delivery of data specified for transmission by multicasting in wireless networks

A non-transitory machine readable medium storing one or more sequences of instructions for execution by one or more processors in an access point (AP) of a wireless local area network (WLAN), wherein said WLAN also includes a plurality of wireless clients, wherein execution of said one or more sequences of instructions by said one or more processors causes said AP to perform the actions of:

• maintaining data indicating a list of wireless clients in said plurality of wireless clients that belong to a special class;
• receiving data, which is to be transmitted on said WLAN in the form of a multicast packet;
• examining said list to determine whether any wireless client is present in said special class;
• and
• if said examining determines that no wireless client is present in said special class, then transmitting said data as said multicast packet on said WLAN,
• but if said examining determines that wireless clients are present in said special class, then transmitting said data in the form of unicast packets on said WLAN to each wireless client of said special class in addition to transmitting said data as said multicast packet on said WLAN.

An Access Point (AP) of a wireless local area network (WLAN), wherein said WLAN also includes a plurality of wireless clients, said AP comprising:

• a memory to store instructions;
• a processor to retrieve instructions from said memory and to execute said instructions, wherein execution of said retrieved instructions causes said AP to perform the actions of:
• maintaining data indicating a list of wireless clients in said plurality of wireless clients that belong to a special class;
• receiving data, which is to be transmitted on said WLAN in the form of a multicast packet;
• examining said list to determine whether any wireless client is present in said special class;
• and
• if said examining determines that no wireless client is present in said special class, then transmitting said data as said multicast packet on said WLAN,
• but if said examining determines that wireless clients are present in said special class, then transmitting said data in the form of unicast packets on said WLAN to each wireless client of said special class in addition to transmitting said data as said multicast packet on said WLAN.