Patent ID: 8194629

Claim:
A method for media distribution in an infrastructure-based communication system, the method comprising: establishing, by a first infrastructure device, a session for a predefined group having as members a plurality of wireless communication devices where distribution of media within the predefined group is managed by the first infrastructure device, wherein the first predefined group has associated therewith at least one ad hoc network, with each ad hoc network being formed by and between a different subset of the members of the predefined group, with one wireless communication device of each subset being selected as a duplicator node for the corresponding ad hoc network; identifying, by the first infrastructure device, the duplicator node for each ad hoc network and each member of the predefined group that is not a member of any of the ad hoc networks; and distributing, by the first infrastructure device, media for the session to only the members of the predefined group that are not a node of any of the ad hoc networks and to the duplicator nodes for distributing to the remaining members of the predefined group that have joined the session wherein at least one of the members of the predefined group receives the media directly from one of the duplicator nodes via the first infrastructure device, wherein the one of the duplicator nodes receives the media directly from the first infrastructure device, and wherein the at least one of the members of the predefined group does not maintain an uplink channel with the first infrastructure device.