Patent ID: 8707391

Claim:
A method of extending support of a group communication session to a set of user equipments (UEs) within a local wireless network, the group communication session arbitrated by an application server in a wireless wide area network (WWAN) that is separate from the local wireless network, comprising: establishing an Internet Protocol (IP) unicast connection between the application server and a proxy client of the application server; associating, at the proxy client of the application server, with at least one UE over the local wireless network; transmitting a notification configured to notify the application server of the proxy client's association with the at least one UE; associating, at the proxy client, with at least one additional UE over the local wireless network; transmitting another notification configured to notify the application server of the proxy client's association with the at least one additional UE; receiving, responsive to the transmitted notifications, traffic associated with the group communication session and targeted to the at least one UE and the at least one additional UE over the IP unicast connection; and re-transmitting, from the proxy client to the at least one UE and the at least one additional UE, the received traffic via IP multicast within the local wireless network.