Method and apparatus for providing reliable multicast in a wireless communication system
First Claim
1. A method for reliable multicasting in a wireless communication system, comprising:
- transmitting a multicast frame having a header and addressed to a first multicast receiver address, wherein the first multicast receiver address maps to a first set of wireless devices and to a second set of wireless devices within a network area; and
retransmitting a duplicate of the multicast frame addressed to a second multicast receiver address different from the first multicast receiver address, wherein the second multicast receiver address is signaled to at least one device of a multicast group, further wherein the second multicast receiver address maps to the first set of wireless devices and not to the second set of wireless devices, further comprising receiving a feedback associated with the multicast frame from at least one device of the multicast group, wherein the received feedback determines the number of duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frame, and wherein the duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frames use a sequence number of the retransmitted frames to distinguish multiple instances of retransmitted frames up to a threshold, and wherein the feedback is collected from a selected subset of one or more devices in the multicast group dynamically assigned on the basis of location within the network area.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus is described which provides reliable multicasting in a WLAN. The use of at least two distinct MAC multicast addresses are used to separate the first multicast frame transmissions from subsequent multicast frame re-transmissions. Thereby enabling legacy devices to ignore duplicate retransmitted multicast frames, because the duplicate frames are sent using a multicast address they do not listen to. Thus, the legacy devices are not confused with duplicated frames. In addition, new devices benefit from the retransmissions sent on the second multicast address and can re-order the frames before delivering to the applications or upper layers; thereby improving the QoS for the multicast.
-
Citations
28 Claims
-
1. A method for reliable multicasting in a wireless communication system, comprising:
-
transmitting a multicast frame having a header and addressed to a first multicast receiver address, wherein the first multicast receiver address maps to a first set of wireless devices and to a second set of wireless devices within a network area; and retransmitting a duplicate of the multicast frame addressed to a second multicast receiver address different from the first multicast receiver address, wherein the second multicast receiver address is signaled to at least one device of a multicast group, further wherein the second multicast receiver address maps to the first set of wireless devices and not to the second set of wireless devices, further comprising receiving a feedback associated with the multicast frame from at least one device of the multicast group, wherein the received feedback determines the number of duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frame, and wherein the duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frames use a sequence number of the retransmitted frames to distinguish multiple instances of retransmitted frames up to a threshold, and wherein the feedback is collected from a selected subset of one or more devices in the multicast group dynamically assigned on the basis of location within the network area. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. An article comprising:
a non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that are executable by a processor to; initiate transmission of a multicast frame having a header and addressed to a first multicast receiver address, wherein the first multicast receiver address maps to a first set of wireless devices and to a second set of wireless devices within a network area; and initiate retransmission of a duplicate of the multicast frame addressed to a second multicast receiver address different from the first multicast receiver address, wherein the second multicast receiver address is signaled to at least one of a multicast group, and further wherein the multicast receiver addressing is performed via a MAC layer, the second multicast receiver address being mapped to the first set of wireless devices and not to the second set of wireless devices, further comprising receiving feedback associated with the multicast frame from at least one device of the multicast group, wherein the received feedback determines the number of duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frame, and wherein the feedback is collected from a selected subset of one or more devices in the multicast group dynamically assigned on the basis of location within the network area, and wherein the duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frames use a sequence number of the retransmitted frames to distinguish multiple instances of retransmitted frames up to a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
20. An integrated circuit, comprising circuitry to:
-
transmit a multicast frame having a header and addressed to a first multicast receiver address, wherein the first multicast receiver address maps to a first set of wireless devices and to a second set of wireless devices within a network area; and retransmit a duplicate of the multicast frame addressed to a second multicast receiver address different from the first multicast receiver address, wherein the second multicast receiver address is signaled to at least one of a multicast group, and further wherein the multicast frame associated with the first multicast receiver address and the duplicate of the multicast frame associated with a second multicast receiver address have a portion of their headers in common, the second multicast receiver address being mapped to the first set of the wireless devices and not to the second set of wireless devices, further comprising receiving feedback associated with the multicast frame from at least one device of the multicast group, wherein the received feedback determines the number of duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frame, and wherein the duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frames use a sequence number of the retransmitted frames to distinguish multiple instances of retransmitted frames up to a threshold, and wherein the feedback is collected from a selected subset of one or more devices in the multicast group dynamically assigned on the basis of location within the network area. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
-
26. An apparatus for reliable multicasting in a wireless communication system, comprising:
-
a processor configured to transmit a multicast frame having a header and addressed to a first multicast receiver address, wherein the first multicast receiver address maps to a first set of wireless devices and to a second set of wireless devices within a network area, and to retransmit a duplicate of the multicast frame, the duplicate being associated with a second multicast receiver address different from the first multicast receiver address, wherein the second multicast receiver address is signaled to at least one device of a multicast group, and further wherein the second multicast receiver address maps to the first set of the wireless devices and not to the second set of wireless device, and the processor further configured to receive a feedback associated with the multicast frame from at least one device of the multicast group, wherein the received feedback determines the number of duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frame, and wherein the feedback is collected from a selected subset of one or more devices in the multicast group dynamically assigned on the basis of location within the network area, and wherein the duplicate retransmissions of the multicast frames use a sequence number of the retransmitted frames to distinguish multiple instances of retransmitted frames up to a threshold, the multicast frame associated with the first multicast receiver address and the duplicate of the multicast frame associated with a second multicast receiver address having a portion of their headers in common; and a memory associated with the processor. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28)
-
Specification