Patent ID: 7400596

Claim:
A communication device for processing a request to establish a multicast session among a plurality of communication nodes, the communication device comprising: a receiver, the receiver receiving a communication signal from a first communication device, the communication signal including a setup multicast session request, the setup multicast session request including a criterion for joining a first multicast session; a computer-readable medium having computer-readable instructions stored thereon, the instructions comprising receiving the criterion for joining the first multicast session; identifying a first multicast session address and a second multicast session address using the criterion for joining the first multicast session, the first multicast session identified using the first multicast session address; identifying a responder device using the second multicast session address, wherein the responder device is a member of a second multicast session, the second multicast session identified using the second multicast session address; and sending a multicast session announcement to the identified responder device, the multicast session announcement including the first multicast session address, the second multicast session address, and the criterion for joining the first multicast session; and a processor, the processor coupled to the computer-readable medium and configured to execute the instructions.