Patent ID: 6223286
Filing Date: 2001-04-24
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A receiving protocol device in a multicast communication system in which multicast messages are transmitted from at least one multicast transmission device to a plurality of receiving protocol devices belonging to an identical multicast group, the receiving protocol device comprising:a lower level interface unit for receiving each multicast message transmitted from the multicast transmission device;a release time setting unit for setting a release time of the multicast message received by the lower level interface unit to a prescribed time specified to all of said plurality of receiving protocol devices;a message storing unit for storing the multicast message received by the lower level interface unit until the release time set by the release time setting unit; andan upper level interface unit for releasing the message stored by the message storing unit to an upper level device provided in correspondence to said receiving protocol device, such that the multicast messages received by said plurality of receiving protocol devices are released from said plurality of receiving protocol devices to respective upper level devices simultaneously at the release time so as to realize an identical receiving time of the multicast message among users of the respective upper level devices.