Patent ID: 7573837

Claim:
A method of establishing multicast Push-to-x over Cellular (PoC) communication, comprising: conveying a first initiation request from an initiating party to a PoC server, the first initiation request seeking establishment of a PoC session between the initiating party and at least one target party; conveying from the PoC server to a target party a second initiation request provided by the PoC server after receipt of the first initiation request, the second initiation request containing a multicast flow-ID provided by a multicast session manager (MSM), the multicast flow-ID corresponding with a multicast flow for multicasting PoC communications of the PoC session from the PoC server to one or more participants in the PoC session; conveying from the target party to the MSM a first join request defining a request by the target party to receive the multicast flow, the first join request being provided by target party after the target party receives the second initiation request; conveying from the MSM to the target party a first join reply granting the first join request, and conveying from the MSM to the PoC server a directive for the PoC server to multicast, in the multicast flow, PoC communications to one or more participants in the PoC session; conveying from the target party to the PoC server an acceptance of the second initiation request, the acceptance of the second initiation request being provided by the target party after the target party receives the first join reply; conveying from the PoC server to the initiating party an acceptance of the first initiation request, the acceptance of the first initiation request being provided by the PoC server after the PoC server receives the acceptance of the second initiation request, the acceptance of the first initiation request containing the multicast flow-ID; conveying from the initiating party to the MSM a second join request defining a request by the initiating party to receive the multicast flow, the second join request being provided by initiating party after the initiating party receives the acceptance of the first initiation request; conveying from the MSM to the initiating party a second join reply granting the second join request; and conveying the multicast flow from the PoC server to at least each listener in a group comprising the target party, wherein the multicast flow carries the PoC communications of the PoC session.