Methods and apparatus for layer-2 forwarding of multicast packets

A method for wireless communications, comprising:

• receiving, by a first wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) from a second WTRU, a packet comprising a response associated with an Internet Protocol (IP)-based application;
• determining, by the first WTRU, that the packet is received on a broadcast (BC) Medium Access Control (MAC) address;
• retrieving, by the first WTRU, a proxy rule identifier (PRID) from the packet in response to the determination that the packet is received on the BC MAC address, wherein the PRID is associated with the IP-based application;
• determining, by the first WTRU, whether there is one or more outstanding requests associated with the PRID;
• on condition that there is no outstanding request associated with the PRID, dropping, by the first WTRU, the packet;
• and
• on condition that there is at least one outstanding request associated with the PRID, forwarding, by the first WTRU, the response locally to the IP-based application that initiated the at least one outstanding request.

A first wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive a first packet comprising a request for content available at the WTRU;
• a processor communicatively coupled with the receiver, the processor configured to:
• determine at least one outstanding request for the same content,
• determine multicast path information of the at least one outstanding request,
• generate a second packet,
• set a destination Medium Access Control (MAC) address to a broadcast (BC) MAC address in the second packet, and
• add a proxy rule identifier (PRID) corresponding to the request into a payload of the second packet;
• and
• a transmitter communicatively coupled with the receiver and the processor, the transmitter configured to send the second packet to a second WTRU.

A first wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising:

• a receiver configured to receive, from a second WTRU, a packet comprising a response associated with an Internet Protocol (IP)-based application;
• a processor communicatively coupled with the receiver, the processor configured to:
• determine that the packet is received on a broadcast (BC) Medium Access Control MAC) address,
• retrieve a proxy rule identifier (PRID) from the packet in response to the determination that the packet is received on the BC MAC address, wherein the PRID is associated with the IP-based application,
• determine whether there is one or more outstanding requests associated with the PRID, and
• on condition that there is no outstanding request associated with the PRID, drop the packet, and
• a transmitter communicatively coupled with the receiver and the processor, the transmitter configured to:
• on condition that there is at least one outstanding request associated with the PRID, send the response locally to the IP-based application that initiated the at least one outstanding request.