US 7,499,466 B2
Multicast group management in telecommunication networks
Frank Hundscheidt, Kerkrade (Netherlands); Ralf Keller, Wuerselen (Germany); and Thorsten Lohmar, Aachen (Germany)
Assigned to Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson (Publ), Stockholm (Sweden)
Appl. No. 10/487,755
PCT Filed Aug. 10, 2002, PCT No. PCT/EP02/08981
§ 371(c)(1), (2), (4) Date Jul. 29, 2004,
PCT Pub. No. WO03/021838, PCT Pub. Date Mar. 13, 2003.
Claims priority of application No. 01120496 (EP), filed on Aug. 28, 2001.
Prior Publication US 2004/0246984 A1, Dec. 09, 2004
Int. Cl. H04J 3/26 (2006.01); H04H 20/71 (2008.01)
U.S. Cl. 370—432  [370/312] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. 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 serving 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 joining message with a request for joining a user to a multicast group is sent to the serving router;
the requested serving router checks at the receipt of the joining message, whether said serving router supports the multicast group;
in case of supporting the multicast group the requested serving router performs the joining of the user to the multicast group;
otherwise the requested serving router queries other routers to determine a supporting router for the multicast group in order to join the user to the requested multicast group; and,
a procedure is started for joining the user to the multicast group by attaching the user to the multicast delivery tree having the supporting router as a root of the tree.