Patent ID: 8218468

Claim:
A method for communicating information in a communication network, the method comprising: in a terminal device operable for wireless communication: enabling said terminal device to serve as an originator terminal device in multicast operation, wherein said originator terminal device is configured to determine whether to commence transmission of multicast protocol data units; when said terminal device determines to commence transmission of said multicast protocol data units, transmitting said multicast protocol data units via a network of the communication network utilizing a multicast address; receiving one or more acknowledgment protocol data units via a responder destination terminal device of one or more destination terminal devices subsequent to said transmitting; determining whether said transmitted multicast protocol data units were successfully received at said one or more destination terminal devices based on said received one or more acknowledgment protocol data units; retransmitting those of said transmitted multicast protocol data units, which based on said determining, unsuccessfully received at said one or more destination terminal devices, wherein said retransmission by said terminal device is enabled based on information received from said responder destination terminal device; and receiving a supplemental acknowledgment protocol data unit from at least one of said one or more destination terminal devices exclusive of said responder destination terminal device, wherein each of said acknowledgement protocol data unit and said supplemental acknowledgment protocol data unit are received utilizing said multicast address.