Patent ID: 7561599

Claim:
A method for providing reliable multicasting comprising: transmitting a multicast packet to a multicast group containing a plurality of reliability stations; receiving the multicast packet at the reliability stations; transmitting a first acknowledgement from each reliability station in response to the reliability station receiving the multicast packet; transmitting a second acknowledgement to each reliability station from which a first acknowledgement has been received; determining whether first acknowledgements from all of the reliability stations have been received within a first wait time from transmission of the multicast packet, and if not, retransmitting the multicast packet; determining whether the second acknowledgement for each reliability station has been received at the reliability station within a second wait time from transmission of the first acknowledgement from the reliability station, and if not, retransmitting the first acknowledgement from the reliability station; and if the multicast packet has been retransmitted and received, in response to the retransmission and the determination whether the second acknowledgement has been received, at each reliability station: if the second acknowledgement has not been received, retransmitting the first acknowledgement, and if the second acknowledgement has been received, ignoring the retransmission.