Patent ID: 7408931
Filing Date: 2008-08-05
Classification: H04L,H04W,Y02D

Abstract:
1. A method for reliable delivery of multicast packets in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: transmitting a contention free period initiation signal from an access point to the station, transmitting broadcast packets from the access point to the station from multiple queues, each queue having a priority, the broadcast packets being transmitted from a higher priority queue prior to transmitting broadcast packets from a lower priority queue, and transmitting an end of queue bit when all the broadcast packets for a queue have been transmitted; transmitting multicast packets from the access point to the station and holding the multicast packets in storage after the transmission; transmitting a contention free period end signal from the access point to the station; determining if a negative acknowledgement message has been received by the access point from the station, wherein the negative acknowledgement message is transmitted from the station to the access point when, prior to receiving the higher priority multicast packet, the station receives a lower priority packet, the contention free period end signal, and unicast traffic; retransmitting the multicast packets by the access point in response to receiving the negative acknowledgment message from the station; and eliminating the multicast packets by the access point at a next beacon interval.