Patent ID: 7899046

Claim:
A method for correcting errors comprising: receiving a plurality of error indications from a plurality of respective receivers, wherein the receivers receive a data stream of packets transmitted within a multicast channel, each error indication indicating which ones of a number of the packets were not received; analyzing the plurality of error indications to determine if the error indications convey a pattern that can be represented by customized forward error correction (FEC) code; creating the customized FEC code, when it is determined that a representable pattern has been conveyed; and analyzing the error indications to determine a multicast/unicast strategy, wherein the multicast/unicast strategy comprises identifying a first set of receivers of the plurality of receivers to which the FEC code and an indication of the characteristics of the customized FEC code are transmitted via multicast and a second set of receivers of the plurality of receivers to which unicast data is transmitted.