Patent ID: 7334125

Claim:
A method for facilitating secure communications among multicast nodes in a telecommunications network, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: receiving, at an authoritative node from a first node, a first request to store an encryption key, wherein the first request includes an identifier, and wherein the first node uses the encryption key to encrypt data that is multicast with the identifier to a plurality of second nodes; in response to the first request, the authoritative node storing the encryption key; the authoritative node creating and storing an association between the encryption key and the identifier; receiving, at the authoritative node from at least one second node of the plurality of second nodes, a second request to obtain the encryption key, wherein the second request includes the identifier; in response to the second request, based on the identifier included in the second request and the association between the encryption key and the identifier, the authoritative node retrieving the encryption key; and the authoritative node sending the encryption key to the at least one second node for use in decrypting the encrypted data.