Patent ID: 7110403

Claim:
An IPATM transmission network that supports multipoint-to-multipoint multi-casting between groups of end points, said network comprising: a plurality of nodes; a plurality of endpoints adapted to act as data senders, or receivers, said nodes and endpoints being linked by ATM, wherein at least one sender and all receivers belong to a multi-casting group of endpoints, the at least one sender and all receivers are located on a single spanning delivery tree, and only one virtual circuit (VC) is employed to transmit data over said single spanning deliver tree; a group having members closely located to each other configured to use a multi-cast group address held by an MNS server located close to said group members; and the MNS server located close to said group members is selected by requesting a local MNS server for a new multi-cast group address from a host, said local MNS server being configured to supply a multi-cast address from its own addresses, or said local MNS server being configured to supply an address for a nearest located other MNS server if said local MNS server has no unused addresses.