Transmission methods for communication systems supporting a multicast mode

摘要

Transmission methods for multicast messages and for signaling message responses thereto in communication systems supporting a multicast mode provide that a number of retransmissions of a multicast message may be changed based on a number of receivers (105) of the message. Signaling messages to the multicast message may be transmitted in response to a fixed number of multicast message transmissions, and receivers (105) that have not received the multicast message after the fixed number of transmissions may request further retransmissions up to an additional given number of times. Further, signaling messages may be transmitted at different times or staggered based on a radio condition of the receivers (105). For example, a first multicast message may be transmitted, and responses from groups of receivers (105) may be listened to for a given period, after which one of a next multicast message and a portion of the first multicast message may be transmitted to the groups.