Patent ID: 8254385

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a multicast request communication, at a first device from an access network end point device in communication with the first device over the access network, requesting membership in a multicast group; transmitting a multicast signaling communication to a second device as a result of the multicast request communication, wherein the multicast signaling communication includes an instruction to the second device to obtain membership in the multicast group, the multicast signaling communication provides an identifier for inclusion with data packets associated with the multicast group when said multicast group data packets are encapsulated by the second device according to a media access control (MAC) protocol used in the access network, and the identifier corresponds to the multicast group; receiving the multicast signaling communication at the second device; in response to the received multicast signaling communication, obtaining membership in the multicast group; receiving, from outside the access network and not from the first device, data packets associated with the multicast group; encapsulating the received multicast group data packets at the second device according to the access network MAC protocol, wherein the encapsulation of each encapsulated multicast group data packet includes the identifier corresponding to the multicast group associated with the encapsulated data packet; and forwarding the encapsulated multicast group data packets to the access network end point device from the second device.