Multicasting apparatus

摘要

IP data is multicast from one or more servers (4) in sessions through a network (N) comprising a plurality of routers (R) in a multicast tree to transmission sites (S) of a DVB-T network, where the data is encapsulated by IPEs 28 and transmitted uni-directionally to mobile user equipment (UE). A controller (38) builds up a schedule of session data concerning sessions transmitted by the servers (4) and instructs the IPEs to send join messages to receive data for selected sessions. The join messages may include the address of the source and may be transmitted in good time before the start of the session.

主权项

1. Multicasting apparatus comprising:
an encapsulator for encapsulating multicast data received from a remote source through a bidirectional network, the bidirectional network comprising a plurality of potential remote sources of multicast session data, to be sent, through a unidirectional network to user equipment, and an encapsulator controller operable to control the encapsulator so as to send a join message through the network for multicasting the data to the encapsulator from the source through the bidirectional network, wherein the join message includes an address corresponding to a single remote source selected from the plurality of potential remote sources, thereby creating a source specific multicast tree, the single remote source being the source of the multicast data, and wherein the encapsulator is operable to receive data from servers in different versions and to send the join message in a format dependent on the data version.