Efficient multicast call setup method and system

An access point serving a plurality of wireless terminals that are members of a multicast group, comprising:

• a wireless transceiver;
• a processor coupled to the wireless transceiver, wherein the processor is programmed to:
• collect at the access point, a member set representing members of the multicast group that are being served, the member set including a unicast address for each wireless terminal in the set among the plurality of wireless terminals;
• receive a multicast packet by the access point;
• determine a target set of served wireless terminals that are members of the multicast group that will receive the multicast packet;
• multicast the multicast packet on a downlink from the access point to a multicast address if a number of wireless terminals in the target set is greater or equal to a threshold;
• and
• unicast a copy of the multicast packet on the downlink to the unicast address of each of the wireless terminals in the target set, if the number of wireless terminals in the target set is below the threshold.

A machine-readable storage, having stored thereon a computer program having a plurality of code sections executable by a machine for causing the machine to perform the steps of.

• collecting a member set representing members of a multicast group that are being served by an access point, the member set including a unicast address for each wireless terminal in the set among a plurality of wireless terminals;
• receiving a multicast packet by the access point;
• determining a target set of served wireless terminals that are members of the multicast group that will receive the multicast packet;
• multicasting the multicast packet on a downlink from the access point to a multicast address if a number of wireless terminals in the target set is greater or equal to a threshold;
• and
• unicasting a copy of the multicast packet on the downlink to the unicast address of each of the wireless terminals in the target set, if the number of wireless terminals in the target set is above zero and below the threshold.