Internet protocol multicast content delivery

摘要

A first device communicates with subscriber devices in an access network. A communication is sent from a subscriber device to the first device requesting that the subscriber device be permitted to join a multicast group associated with data for a desired content. After determining that the subscriber device is authorized to receive that content, the first device sends one or more multicast signaling communications to a second device. The multicast signaling communications instruct the second device to join the requested multicast group and provide an identifier associated with that multicast group. After joining the multicast group and receiving content data packets of that group, the second device encapsulates those received packets in frames according to an access network media access control (MAC) protocol and forwards the MAC frames to the subscriber device. The MAC frames include the identifier provided to the second device by the first device.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving, by a first computing system, a first request message indicating that a device is requesting membership in a multicast group associated with a service; determining to authorize membership in the multicast group based on an indication that the device is permitted to receive the service; and conditioned upon determining to authorize membership in the multicast group, transmitting, by the first computing system to a second computing system, an instruction message that instructs the second computing system to transmit a second request message indicating that the second computing system is to join the multicast group and that instructs the second computing system to, responsive to receiving data of the multicast group, transmit the data of the multicast group to the device.