Patent ID: 7324501

Claim:
A method for multicasting data to a plurality of UTOPIA devices comprising: providing a plurality of UTOPIA physical devices connected to a common data bus, each UTOPIA physical device operable to communicate according to UTOPIA protocol, wherein each UTOPIA physical device is coupled to a respective one of a plurality of polling units, each polling unit coupled to a select controller, the select controller operable to initiate selection of two or more of the plurality of UTOPIA physical devices to receive multicast data; for at least two of the polling units, receiving at the select controller an indication that the respective UTOPIA physical device is ready to receive data; selecting for receipt of multicast data two or more of the UTOPIA devices that are ready to receive data by: for each UTOPIA physical device to be selected transmitting, from the select controller, to the polling unit coupled to the UTOPIA physical device to be selected, an indication that the UTOPIA physical device to be selected should be selected; and for each polling unit receiving an indication that the UTOPIA physical device to be selected should be selected, transmitting an address of the UTOPIA physical device coupled to the polling unit from the polling unit to the UTOPIA physical device coupled to the polling unit; and after selection of the two or more of the UTOPIA devices, initiating, by the select controller, transfer of the multicast data through the common bus to the selected UTOPIA physical devices.