Bandwidth conservation for multicast traffic in RF downlinks

摘要

In one embodiment a method includes receiving at an interface a join request for a multicast data stream, determining whether the multicast data stream is presently being transmitted within a same Downlink Broadcast Domain of which the interface is a member, and based on a result of the determining step one of (i) adding an identifier of the interface to an Outgoing Interface List when the multicast data stream is not presently being transmitted within a same Downlink Broadcast Domain of which the interface is a member or (ii) adding the identifier of the interface to a Candidate Outgoing Interface List when the multicast data stream is presently being transmitted within a same Downlink Broadcast Domain of which the interface is a member.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
receiving at a satellite terminal interface of a satellite, a join request for a multicast data stream; determining whether the multicast data stream is presently being transmitted via a plurality of satellite terminal interfaces to a plurality of ground terminals within a same Downlink Broadcast Domain of which the satellite terminal interface is a member, wherein a Downlink Broadcast Domain comprises a set of satellite terminal interface resources shared among satellite terminal interface members of the Downlink Broadcast Domain such that any downlink transmission resources that the satellite terminal interface is allocated for transmission are received by way of membership in the Downlink Broadcast Domain; and adding an identifier of the satellite terminal interface to a Candidate Outgoing Interface List when the multicast data stream is presently being transmitted within a same Downlink Broadcast Domain of which the satellite terminal interface is a member, wherein the satellite terminal identifier is configured to identify the satellite terminal interface as a duplicate satellite terminal interface already transmitting the multicast data stream within the Downlink Broadcast Domain, wherein when the satellite terminal interface is identified as a duplicate satellite terminal interface for the multicast data stream, the satellite terminal interface does not transmit the multicast data stream unless the identifier of the satellite terminal interface is added to an Outgoing Interface List.