Patent ID: 7558262

Claim:
A method for flexible multicast of multicast data to a multicast group within a telecommunication system, wherein the multicast data is provided by a broadcast/multicast server and transferred by means of channels to terminals registered to the multicast group, said method comprising the steps of: establishing multi-channel multicast groups, wherein each multi-channel multicast group is configured and uniquely identified by means of a first identifier; offering, for each multi-channel multicast group, at least one channel, wherein a channel is uniquely identified by means of a second identifier; providing an announcement multicast group for informing about availability and configuration of the multi-channel multicast groups; wherein the announcement multicast group is announced to said terminals and each said terminal can join the announcement multicast group in order to be informed regularly about the available multi-channel multicast group, wherein the first identifier is used to join each said terminal to the multi channel multicast group and to hop between multi channel multicast groups, wherein the hopping is performed by means of a join-and-leave transaction to or from a multi-channel multicast group; and, wherein the second identifier is used for zapping between the channels.