Multicast group management in telecommunication networks

• US 20040246984A1
• Filed: 07/29/2004
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Original Assignee: Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
• Inventors: Keller, Ralf, Lohmar, Thorsten, Hundscheidt, Frank
• Granted Patent: US 7,499,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/432
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/189 in combination with wireless systems selective distribution or broadcast in wireless communication networks H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/08 User group management
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 40/02 Communication route or path selection, e.g. power-based or shortest path routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 72/30 Resource management for broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 80/04 Network layer protocols, e.g. mobile IP [Internet Protocol]

Abstract

The invention relates to a method, network node, router, serving node and system for performing multicast data delivery in a mobile telecommunication network. The basic idea is to provide a management of the multicast groups within a mobile telecommunication network. In particular this means to synchronise the multicast group information between routers, like for example the GGSNs. This avoids duplicate multicast data delivery tree allocation for the same multicast group.

Claims

1-19. -19. (Cancelled)

20. A method for performing multicast data delivery within a mobile telecommunication network having multicast groups, said network including routers that receive multicast data and forward said data to users, wherein the multicast data delivery of a multicast group is performed by means of a multicast delivery tree with a router as a root and with the users as leafs of said tree, wherein within the mobile telecommunication network a management of the multicast groups is performed according to the following steps:

a registration message with a request for joining a user to a multicast group is sent to the router;

the requested router checks at the receipt of the registration message, whether said router supports the multicast group;

in case of supporting the multicast group the requested router performs the registration of the user to the multicast group;

otherwise the requested router queries other routers for estimating a router supporting the multicast group in order to register the user to the requested multicast group; and

a procedure is started for joining the user to the multicast delivery tree having the supporting router as a root of the tree.

21. The method recited in claim 20, wherein the mobile telecommunication network provides a list of multicast groups supported by said network and said list is stored in a multicast database.

22. The method recited in claim 21, wherein the multicast database administrates entries of the users subscribed to the multicast groups and further multicast related information.

23. The method recited in claim 20, wherein the list of multicast groups of the user is provided to the user during a network'"'"'s attach procedure and the user registers to the multicast groups by sending to the router the registration message with a request for joining.

24. The method recited in claim 20, wherein a serving node, which serves the user registered to its serving area performs the registration of the user to a multicast group by sending to the router the registration message with a request for joining.

25. The method recited in claim 20, wherein the telecommunication network provides a subscriber server for storing entries relating to the registration of the user to the multicast group.

26. The method recited in claim 20, wherein information exchange is performed between the subscriber server and the multicast database for verification and for synchronization of the entries.

27. The method recited in claim 20, wherein the user has an interface in a mobile terminal to modify the entries relating to the multicast registration and/or de-registration in the subscriber server and/or in the multicast database.

28. The method recited in claim 20, wherein the registration message with the request for joining a multicast group is performed by means of an IGMP message.

29. The method recited in claim 20, wherein in the mobile telecommunication network a router multicast group is pre-established and pre-configured with the routers as members of said group.

30. The method recited in claim 29, wherein the query to the other routers is performed by means of a multicast transmission performed to the routers being members of the router multicast group.

31. The method recited in claim 20, wherein the query to the other routers is performed by means of a point-to-point connection.

32. The method recited in claim 20, wherein the query to the other routers is performed by means of querying the multicast database for the router supporting the requested multicast group.

33. The method recited in claim 20, wherein data transmission of the multicast group to the user registered to a multicast group is done on a transport layer by means of a transport level multicast group tunnel established by means of a transport layer protocol for tunnelling.

34. The method recited in claim 20, wherein in case the router supporting the requested multicast group is estimated by a procedure for connecting the user to said router, wherein an identifier of the multicast delivery tree being used for the multicast data delivery for the requested multicast group is used to register the serving node of the user to said tree.

35. A router for performing multicast data delivery within a mobile telecommunication network having multicast groups, said network including routers that receive multicast data and forward said data to users, wherein the multicast data delivery of a multicast group is performed by means of a multicast delivery tree with a router as a root and with the users as leafs of said tree, said router comprising:

means for receiving a registration message with a request for joining a user to a multicast group;

means for checking whether said router supports the multicast group;

means for performing the registration of the user to the multicast group;

means for querying other routers for estimating a router supporting the multicast group in order to register the user to the requested multicast group;

means for joining the user to the multicast delivery tree having the supporting router as a root of the tree; and

means for receiving a deregistration message with a request for deregistration a user from the multicast group and for performing the de-registration of the user from a multicast group.

36. A serving node for performing multicast data delivery within a mobile telecommunication network having multicast groups, said network including routers that receive multicast data and forward said data to users, wherein the multicast data delivery of a multicast group is performed by means of a multicast delivery tree with a router as a root and with the users as leafs of said tree, said serving node comprising:

means for receiving a list with the multicast groups being pre-configured for the user;

means for performing the registration of the user to a multicast group; and

means for joining the user to the multicast delivery trees having for each tree a router supporting the multicast group as a root of the tree.