Method and System for Efficient and Reliable Mac-Layer Multicast Wireless Transmissions

Abstract

A method and system for reliable multicasting on a communication network includes sending Request-to-Send (RTS) signals from a sender node of the network to the receiver nodes, the RTS signals include a set of identifiers corresponding to the receiver nodes. The Clear-to-Send (CTS) signals and Acknowledgment (ACK) signals are sent from the receiver nodes according to an ordering function of the set of identifiers.

1 . A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for reliably multicasting on a communication network, the method steps comprising: 
 sending one or more Request-to-Send (RTS) signals from a sender node of the network to a plurality of receiver nodes of the network, the RTS signals including a set of identifiers corresponding to the receiver nodes;    sending one or more Clear-to-Send (CTS) signals from one or more of the receiver nodes according to an ordering function of the set of identifiers;    sending a data packet from the sender node to the receiver nodes;    sending one or more Acknowledgment (ACK) signals from one or more of the receiver nodes receiving the data packet to the sender node according to an ordering function of the set of identifiers;    determining from the one or more CTS signals and the one or more ACK signals received by the sender node whether any of the receiver nodes did not receive the data packet correctly; and    multicasting the data packet from the sender node to the one or more receiver nodes that did not correctly receive the data packet.    
   
   
       2 . The device of  claim 1 , further comprises instructions for: a plurality of locally unique labels addressing each of the receiver nodes.  
   
   
       3 . The device of  claim 2 , wherein the locally unique labels are shorter than a full MAC network address of the receiver nodes.  
   
   
       4 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the set of identifiers comprising: a plurality of binary bits addressing each of the receiver nodes.  
   
   
       5 . The device of  claim 4 , wherein the binary bits are shorter than a full MAC network address of the receiver nodes.  
   
   
       6 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the ordering function of the set of identifiers follows the sequential position of the identifiers in the set of identifiers.  
   
   
       7 . The device of  claim 1 , wherein the sender node and the receiving nodes comprise a wireless network.  
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the wireless network operating on a IEEE 802.11 protocol.