Patent ID: 7136662

Claim:
A wireless base station which is connected to a plurality of wireless terminals and provides a multicasting service for the plurality of wireless terminals, the wireless base station comprising: a transmitter unit configured to transmit a first message to neighboring wireless base stations; a receiver unit configured to receive a second message from the neighboring wireless base stations; a message processing unit configured to extract a multicast-related control data from the second message received by the receiver unit, the multicast-related control data indicating multicasting service states of the neighboring wireless base stations; a determination unit configured to determine whether the wireless base station provides the multicasting service for the plurality of wireless terminals, based on the multicasting service states of the neighboring base stations indicated by the multicast-related control data; and a message generating unit configured to generate the first message that is indicative of a determination result by the determination unit, and sending the first message to the transmitter unit so that the transmitter unit transmits the first message, wherein the wireless base station determines autonomously whether the wireless base station provides the multicasting service for the plurality of wireless terminals.