Patent ID: 8077717

Claim:
A method for providing multicast services, comprising: receiving, by an application server (AS), a multicast service request sent by a User Equipment (UE) through an IMS network, wherein the multicast service request comprises a multicast service identifier and a Channel ID; analyzing, by the AS, the Channel ID carried in the multicast service request, and requesting the media transmission parameters corresponding to the Channel ID from a Service Schedule Function (SSF); receiving, by the AS, the media transmission parameters from the SSF, wherein the media transmission parameters comprise multicast address; sending, by the AS, a response carrying the media transmission parameters to the UE through the IMS network; and sending, by a Media Resource Function (MRF), multicast service media streams corresponding to the media transmission parameters to the UE; wherein, before receiving, by the AS, the media transmission parameters from the SSF, the method further comprises: finding, by SSF, whether multicast service content corresponding to the media transmission parameters is scheduled, and if yes, providing the media transmission parameters; if no, obtaining a service scheduling plan, obtaining content metadata and content source address from a Content Management Function (CMF) according to the service scheduling plan, and obtaining multicast address and/or port information; sending, by the SSF, a content scheduling message carrying the multicast address and/or port information, the content metadata, and the content source address to the MRF; and obtaining, by the MRF, multicast service content from a media content source device according to the content source address.