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Answer
Broadcast Mode causes a radio to transmit to all radios on the same network in that coverage area. Broadcast mode can be configured on all devices in a network for a simple deployment. It is typically configured on a server or device acting as the server/master in point-to-multipoint applications to enable the server to transmit its data to all devices on the network.
In Broadcast Mode, the radio uses Broadcast Attempts to increase the odds of successful delivery. Broadcast mode does not send an RF Acknowledgement from the receiver on successful receipt of the packet, because there are multiple radios listening to the transmission. Therefore, the transmitter will send every packet out the number of times specified by the Broadcast Attempts setting.
Addressed Mode causes a radio to transmit to a specific radio on the network using the radio MAC Address to determine the receiving radio. The MAC Address of the intended receiver is configured as the Destination Address. In point-to-point applications typically the server and the client are direct addressed to each other while in point-to-multipoint applications the clients are typically direct addressed to the server. When working with the masterless protocol of the AC4790/CL4790 the peers can be direct addressed to each other for point-to-point, or for point-to-multipoint, the ones acting as clients/slaves would be direct addressed to the one acting as the server/master.
In Addressed Mode, the radio uses Transmit Retries to increase the odds of successful delivery. With Addressed Mode the receiver will send a RF Acknowledgement upon successful receipt of the packet. Therefore, the transmitter will only use as many retries as are required to successfully deliver the packet.
Broadcast Mode is simple to deploy and is, therefore, very attractive to many designers. However, Broadcast Mode introduces much more RF latency to a system than Addressed Mode due to the fact that there is no RF Acknowledgement. Many systems will use both methods. For instance, in a network comprised of an access point and several clients/slaves to that access point, the access point radio will be programmed in Broadcast Mode and the client/slave radios will be programmed into Addressed Mode.