Patent ID: 7058413

Claim:
A multicast management mechanism for mobile networks, each mobile network having a mobile device, a short message-service center (SM-SC), a short message service gateway mobile switching center (SMS GMSC), an HLR, a first mobile switching center (MSC), a second mobile switching center, a first visitor location register (VLR) and a second visitor location register, when the mobile device moves from a first location area (LA) of the first MSC to a second LA of the second MSC, the multicast management mechanism comprising the steps: the mobile device receiving a location signal from the second MSC; according to the location signal, performing a multicast user registration to register the latest LA of the multicast user who owns the mobile device; according to the latest location area, establishing a multicast table including a VLR record table in a home location register (HLR), and LA record tables, wherein: the VLR record table records VLR addresses located by all multicast users and the total number of multicast users in each VLR; and the LA record tables record LA addresses in each VLR and the total number of multicast users in each LA; and according to the multicast table, performing a multicast forward procedure when a message is on broadcast, to complete the multicast message forward; wherein the multicast forward procedure comprises the following steps: the SM-SC sending a multicast message to the SMS GMSC; the SMS GMSC sending a short message routing request (MAP SEND ROUTING INFO FOR SM) to the HLR to request for routing information of the mobile device; upon receiving the short message routing request, the HLR searching the VLR record table for the routing information; and the MSCs of the multicast users who own the mobile device sending a short message forward location area request (MAP_SEND_INFO_FOR_MT_SMS) to its corresponding VLR to obtain the related information of the multicast users, and to search the LA record tables for identification of the LAs where the multicast users reside.