Multi-casting (Beta)

A multicast group is a named list of devices that share the same device profile. With one action you fan a single downlink template out to every device in the group, instead of sending the same command device by device. This page covers building groups, adding devices, and firing a downlink to the whole group.

caution

This is a beta feature. It is off by default and only appears when your tier enables it. Behavior and limits may change as it matures. If you do not see Multi-casting (Beta) in the sidebar, your tier does not have it switched on, contact your account manager.

note

Where to find it: Sidebar -> Administration -> Multi-casting (Beta).

What multi-casting does

When you execute a multicast group, ioX-Pulse sends the chosen downlink to each device in the group as a separate unicast downlink through ioX-Bridge, one per device. This is fan-out: it saves you triggering the same command many times by hand. In this first version it is fan-out only; true LoRaWAN multicast (a shared multicast session across devices) is a planned follow-up.

Two things follow from that:

• A group is profile-homogeneous. Every device in it uses the same device profile, so the same downlink template is valid for all of them. You pick the profile when you create the group, and it is locked afterwards.
• Members are devices, not people. If you want to email a set of recipients when something happens, you want a notification group instead.

Before you start

Multi-casting depends on two tier settings:

• Multi-casting must be enabled for your workspace (this is what makes the sidebar item appear).
• Downlinks must be allowed for the scope you are working in. Creating a group and firing a downlink both require downlinks to be permitted; you can still list and view groups without that.

If downlinks are not allowed, executing a group returns a message telling you multi-casting needs downlinks enabled.

Scope: partner-level vs sub-account

Like notification groups, a multicast group lives at one of two scopes:

Scope	Devices it can target	Who sees it
Partner-level	Devices across the partner, including sub-account-assigned devices, that match the group's profile.	Partner Admins, and surfaced to sub-accounts.
Sub-account	Devices within that sub-account that match the group's profile.	That sub-account, plus Partner Admins.

A Partner Admin sees partner-level groups and all sub-account groups. A Sub-account Admin sees and manages only their own sub-account's groups.

Create a group

1. Go to Administration -> Multi-casting (Beta).
2. Click Create group.
3. Name the group (required, up to 128 characters).
4. Description (optional, up to 512 characters).
5. Device profile (required). Only devices on this profile can be added to the group. This choice is locked once the group is created.
6. Click Create.

The drawer then switches to edit mode so you can add devices straight away.

Permission required: Partner Admin, Sub-account Admin.

Add and remove devices

Open a group in edit mode to manage its devices.

• Click Add device to open a picker. The picker only lists devices that use the group's device profile, so you cannot accidentally mix incompatible devices.
• Remove a device to take it out of the group. The device itself is not affected, it is simply unlinked from the group.
• A device can only appear in a group once.

Changes are buffered while you work and committed when you click Save.

Execute: fire a downlink to the group

1. On the group's row, click the Execute (play) button. It is disabled until the group has at least one device.
2. In the Execute dialog, pick a downlink template from the group's device profile (for example "Greenhouse Control (0x01)").
3. Optionally supply a JSON payload override if you need to vary the template's values for this send.
4. Click Fire to N device(s).

ioX-Pulse enqueues a downlink for every device in the group and reports back:

• Aggregate counts: how many were enqueued, how many were rate-limited, and how many failed.
• Per-device results: for each device, whether it succeeded (with the queued port and payload size) or failed (with a reason).

The group list shows when it was last executed, by whom, and which downlink was last fired.

Execution history

Open a group (click its name) and scroll to Execution history to see every past send, newest first. Each entry records the downlink template that was fired, the outcome counts (enqueued, rate-limited, failed), who fired it, and whether it came from a manual send, the API, or a workflow. Expand a row to see the exact JSON payload that was sent (or a note that the template's sample data was used when no override was supplied).

Permission required: Partner Admin, Sub-account Admin, or Sub-account Operator (operators can execute and view, but cannot create or edit group definitions).

Rate limits

Two independent limits apply to protect the network:

• Per-user execute limit. Each user can only fire a limited number of multicast executions per minute (the default is 5). This caps the manual Play action, not the individual device sends within one execution.
• Per-device downlink limits. The normal per-device downlink rate limits still apply to each fanned-out send. A device that is already over its downlink limit is reported as rate-limited in the per-device results, while the rest of the group still goes out.

Per-tier limits

The number of multicast groups you can create depends on your tier. Check Settings -> Plan for your current limit. If you hit the cap you will see "Limit reached" on the Create button; delete unused groups or contact your account manager about an upgrade.

Edit and delete

• Edit: change a group's name, description, and membership. The device profile cannot be changed after creation.
• Delete: use the Delete button. Deletion is a soft delete (audit history is preserved) and devices are simply removed from the group, not deleted themselves.

Permission required: Partner Admin, Sub-account Admin.

Frequently asked

Why can't I add a device to my group?

The group is locked to one device profile, chosen at creation. Only devices on that profile appear in the Add device picker. If the device you want uses a different profile, it belongs in a different group.

A few devices show as rate-limited after I fired the group. What happened?

Each device has its own downlink rate limit. If a device recently received a downlink it may be temporarily limited, so its send is skipped while the rest of the group proceeds. Re-run the execution later for the skipped devices, or check the device's downlink history.

Can a rule trigger a multicast group automatically?

Not yet. Firing a group is a manual action today. A "Trigger multicast group" action exists in the rule builder but is stubbed, see Rules and alerts. For now, execute groups from this page.

Is this real LoRaWAN multicast?

Not in this version. ioX-Pulse fans the downlink out as one unicast send per device. True multicast (a shared session across devices) is on the roadmap.