MULTICAST ADDRESSING IN A LOCAL AREA NETWORK HAVING INADEQUATE MULTICAST ADDRESSING CAPABILITY

摘要

Use of a multicast address in a LAN, where the LAN does not support an adequate multicast address space, is implemented. An apparatus is provided for delivering a multicast address to a station on a local area network, where the local area network does not suppport the multicast address. There is a means for transmitting a frame on the local area network, the frame having; a predetermined field containing a reference to the multicast address, an indicator, the indicator capable of being interpreted by a receiving station to mean that the multicast address may be recovered from the frame by parsing the frame, and an applications program may be executed in response to the multicast address. Also, the apparatus may have a receiving station capable of receiving the frame; and there may be a means, in the receiving station, for executing an applications program in response to the multicast address.