Patent ID: 7792106

Claim:
A method for multicasting audio data in a power line communication network, comprising: assigning a set of one or more time slots and one or more sub-carriers for each recipient audio client designated to receive the multicast audio data over a power line serving as a communication medium for a multicast session; wherein transmissions of the multicast audio data are carried out over the power line communication network during a repetitive time cycle that forms a transmission cycle, wherein each transmission cycle has a contention free time period and a contention period, wherein carrier sense multiple access (CSMA) is used to determine usage of the network during the contention period, and wherein the duration of the contention free time period within the transmission cycle is defined by a cycle master device residing on the power line communication network and the cycle master device communicates a start of the contention free time period of the defined transmission cycle via a cycle start timing signal propagated on the power line and communicates a start of the contention period of the defined transmission cycle via a start contention period timing signal propagated on the power line; building a list of recipient audio clients for receipt of the multicast audio data over the power line communication network responsive to a user input of recipients for the multicast session; generating the cycle start timing signal; buffering audio data in a buffer, the audio data being for receipt during the contention free time period of the transmission cycle to the recipient audio clients on the list; reading the audio data from the buffer; transmitting the audio data over the power line communication network to each recipient on the recipient audio client list using a time slot and sub-carrier set assigned to each recipient during the contention free time period within the transmission cycle to effect a multicast of the audio data; and generating the start contention period timing signal.