Patent ID: 7573881

Claim:
A policy server apparatus comprising: a policy database stored on a computer readable storage medium and containing policy information; and policy service program code stored on the computer readable storage medium and operably coupled to determine a policy decision indicating whether a subscriber device can be admitted to a multicast group based upon the policy information contained in the policy database, wherein the policy service program code comprises connection establishment logic operably coupled to establish a policy service connection between the policy server and the access device, receiving logic operably coupled to receive a policy service request message at the policy server from an access device indicating at least an incoming interface over which a join request was received from the subscriber device by the access device and a multicast group associated, policy determination logic operably coupled to determine a policy decision indicating whether the subscriber device can be admitted to the multicast group based upon the policy information contained in the policy database and at least the incoming interface over which the join request was received from the subscriber device by the access device and multicast group indicated in the policy service request message, and sending logic operably coupled to send a policy service decision message from the policy server to the access device including the policy decision indicating whether the subscriber device can be admitted to the multicast group.