Patent ID: 8750858

Claim:
An apparatus for distributing data among mobile stations via a base-station network, the apparatus serving as a base station included in the base-station network, the apparatus comprising: a processor to: transmit a first range-check message, via the base-station network, to other base stations in the base-station network, the first range-check message including designated-range information that defines a service-area range indicating a range of a service area to which distribution data is to be distributed within the base-station network; detect first response messages that are transmitted from one or more base stations included in the other base stations, via the base-station network, in response to the first range-check message, the first response messages including first cell information identifying cells that are covered by the one or more base stations; and transmit the first cell information, via the base-station network, to a data-distribution apparatus that distributes the distribution data to one or more mobile stations located within the service-area range via the base-station network, wherein the processor, upon receiving a second range-check message from another base station in the base-station network, determines whether a cell covered by the apparatus belongs to the service-area range defined by the designated-range information included in the received second range-check message; when it is determined that a cell covered by the apparatus belongs to the service-area range defined by the designated-range information, the processor transmits a second response message including second cell information identifying a cell covered by the apparatus, to the another base station via the base-station network; the processor, upon receiving the second range-check message from a first adjacent base station located adjacent to the apparatus, transfers the received second range-check message to a second adjacent base station located adjacent to the apparatus; the designated-range information defines, as the service-area range, a hop count of the second range-check message, the hop count of the second range-check message indicating a number of times the second range-check message is transferred between a pair of adjacent base stations in the base-station network; and the processor determines whether a cell covered by the apparatus is within the service-area range defined by the designated-range information, based on the hop count of the second range-check message.