METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING MULTICAST SERVICE

• US 20080068990A1
• Filed: 11/15/2007
• Published: 03/20/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apex Net LLC (IP Edge LLC)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: WU, Haijun
• Granted Patent: US 8,270,294 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/00 Routing or path finding of packets in data switching networks routing or path finding in wireless networks H04W40/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/16 Multipoint routing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/15 in relation to multipoint traffic arrangements for broadcast or multicast in data networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/70 Admission control; Resource allocation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/806 Broadcast or multicast traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a method and an apparatus for implementing a multicast service. The method includes: constructing a multicast service notification packet, and sending the multicast service notification packet to a user terminal; the multicast service notification packet may be a return notification packet for responding a request of a user for joining a multicast group or an abnormity notification packet for notifying a user of reason for an abnormity in the multicast service or the reason that the user fails to join the multicast group. Therefore, it is effective to improve the user'"'"'s satisfaction of a multicast video service provided by an operator and to improve the operability and the manageability of a multicast video network.

Claims

1. A method for implementing a multicast service, comprising:

receiving a packet from a user terminal;

constructing, by a network side providing a multicast service, a multicast service notification packet upon receiving the packet from the user terminal; and

sending the multicast service notification packet to the user terminal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the multicast service notification packet is an abnormity notification packet;

and

the constructing the multicast service notification packet comprises;

determining a reason that the network side is unable to provide the user terminal with the multicast service; and

carrying the reason in the abnormity notification packet.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the reason that the network side is unable to provide the user terminal with the multicast service comprises:

determining a reason that the user terminal is unable to join a multicast group, when the user terminal applies to the network side for joining the multicast group and the user terminal is unable to join the multicast group.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the reason that the user terminal is unable to join the multicast group is selected from the group consisting of:

a reason that the user terminal has no right to join the multicast group; and

a reason that a physical port of the network side does not have enough bandwidth to enable the user terminal to develop the multicast service.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the reason the network side is unable to provide the user terminal with the multicast service comprises:

determining a reason that quality of service (QoS) of the multicast service is changed, when the QoS of the multicast service obtained by the user terminal having joined the multicast group is changed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the multicast service notification packet is a return notification packet;

and

the constructing the multicast service notification packet comprises;

constructing the return notification packet upon receiving a packet for joining the multicast group sent by the user terminal.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the constructing the multicast service notification packet comprises:

extracting a source address from a packet for joining a multicast group sent by the user terminal upon receiving the packet for joining the multicast group sent by the user terminal; and

modifying a destination address of the multicast service notification packet into the source address extracted from the packet in the multicast service notification packet.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the source address comprises:

a Media Access Control (MAC) address of the user terminal.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the constructing the multicast service notification packet comprises:

recording a port of the user terminal upon receiving a packet for joining a multicast group sent by the user terminal;

carrying the multicast service notification packet using a multicast packet; and

the sending the multicast service notification packet to the user terminal comprises;

transmitting the multicast service notification packet to the recorded port of the user terminal.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the multicast service notification packet is selected from the group consisting of:

a return notification packet and an abnormity notification packet.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the return notification packet and the abnormity notification packet obtained by extending one type of Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) packet.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the return notification packet and the abnormity notification packet are obtained by extending two types of IGMP packets, respectively.

13. An apparatus for implementing a multicast service, comprising:

means, for receiving a packet from a user terminal;

a multicast service notification packet constructing module, for constructing a multicast service notification packet upon receiving the packet from the user terminal, and sending the multicast service notification packet to the user terminal.

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the multicast service notification packet constructing module comprises:

a return notification packet constructing module, for constructing a return notification packet upon receiving a packet for joining a multicast group sent by the user terminal, and sending the return notification packet as the multicast service notification packet to the user terminal.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the multicast service notification packet constructing module further comprises:

an abnormity notification packet constructing module, for constructing an abnormity notification packet, and sending the abnormity notification packet as the multicast service notification packet to the user terminal.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein the multicast service notification packet constructing module further comprises:

an abnormity reason determining module, for determining a reason for an abnormity when the abnormity occurs in the multicast service provided for the user terminal; and

the abnormity notification packet constructing module constructs the abnormity notification packet according to the reason determined by the abnormity reason determining module.

17. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the multicast service notification packet constructing module comprises:

an abnormity notification packet constructing module, for constructing an abnormity notification packet, and sending the abnormity notification packet as the multicast service notification packet to the user terminal.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, wherein the multicast service notification packet constructing module further comprises:

an abnormity reason determining module, for determining a reason for an abnormity when the abnormity occurs in the multicast service provided for the user terminal; and

the abnormity notification packet constructing module constructs the abnormity notification packet according to the reason determined by the abnormity reason determining module.

19. A user terminal for implementing a multicast service, comprising:

means, for sending a packet from a user terminal;

a multicast service request sending control module, for controlling resending the packet if receiving no multicast service notification packet returned by a network side upon sending the packet to the network side.

20. The user terminal of claim 19, further comprising:

an abnormity notification packet handling module, for receiving an abnormity notification packet sent by the network side, and displaying on a display interface a reason for an abnormity contained in the abnormity notification packet.