Patent ID: 8385338

Claim:
A multicast communication system, comprising: a sender; and a plurality of receivers in communication with the sender, wherein the sender is configured to send a plurality of multicast data packets each having an incrementally larger sequence number to the receivers, wherein the sequence numbers comprise a first sequence number greater than zero and a second sequence number greater than the first sequence number, wherein all of the receivers receive all of the multicast data packets up to the first sequence number and less than all of the receivers receive all of the multicast data packets greater than the first sequence number up to the second sequence number, wherein one of the receivers does not receive the multicast data packets with sequence numbers greater than the first sequence number and up to the second sequence number, wherein the one receiver is configured to determine whether a maximum sequence number it received is less than the second sequence number, wherein the first receiver is configured to acknowledge to the sender receipt of the data packets up to the maximum sequence number if the maximum sequence number is less than the second sequence number, and wherein the sender is configured to resend the multicast data packets having sequence numbers greater than the first maximum sequence number.