Method and apparatus for improved multicast streaming in wireless networks

摘要

The invention includes a method and apparatus for providing multimedia content to a plurality of wireless terminals. The method includes transcoding an original media stream to form at least one companion media stream, each media stream having a different data rate, and advertising each media stream to each of the plurality of wireless terminals, each wireless terminal having an associated channel condition. The original media stream and at least one companion media stream are each adapted for being selected by each of the wireless terminals. For each wireless terminal selecting one of the media streams, the selected one of the media streams is selected using the data rates of the media streams and the channel condition of the wireless terminal. The transcoding of the media stream to form the at least one companion media stream may be performed using channel condition information.