Patent ID: 8199732

Claim:
A method for multicast grouping within a centralized wireless local area network including a wireless network switch adapted to handle multicast control without participating in multicast data processing, comprising: transmitting a first multicast control message from an access point to the wireless network switch of the wireless local area network, the first multicast control message encapsulating an Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) JOIN message transmitted from a wireless station of the wireless local area network, the access point adapted to transmit both wired and wireless messages; receiving a second multicast control message by the access point and placement of information originally contained within the IGMP JOIN message-that is returned within the second multicast control message into a multicast message, the multicast message including a multicast group address extracted from the second multicast control message as a destination address within a first header portion of the multicast message and an address of a multicast router as a destination address within a second header portion of the multicast message, the multicast message being transmitted by the access point to the multicast router without transmission via the wireless network switch; and receiving multicast data by the access point from the multicast router avoiding propagation of the multicast data via the wireless network switch.