Distributed Gateway for Reliable Multicast Wireless Video

An apparatus comprising:

• at least one transmitter configured to transmit wireless signals;
• and
• a network interface unit configured to enable communications over a wired network;
• a processor configured to be coupled to the at least one transmitter, wherein the controller is configured to:
• receive a wireless-friendly multicast video stream that has a reduced bandwidth for wireless transmission;
• process the wireless-friendly multicast video stream depending on conditions in a radio channel used by the transmitter to transmit signals to wireless client devices;
• and
• supply the wireless-friendly multicast video stream to the transmitter to transmit the wireless-friendly multicast video streams to one or more client devices that are in a multicast group intended for the wireless-friendly multicast video stream.

A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to:

• receive a wireless-friendly multicast video stream that has a reduced bandwidth for wireless transmission;
• process the wireless-friendly multicast video stream depending on conditions in a radio channel used by a transmitter to transmit signals to wireless client devices;
• and
• supply the wireless-friendly multicast video stream to the transmitter to transmit the wireless-friendly multicast video streams to one or more client devices that are in a multicast group intended for the wireless-friendly multicast video stream.

A method comprising:

• at a central apparatus configured to communicate with one or more access point devices operating in a wireless local area network, receiving one or more multicast video streams each intended for a multicast group of wireless client devices served by one or more of the access point devices;
• re-encoding the one or more multicast video streams to produce a corresponding one or more wireless-friendly multicast video streams that have a reduced bandwidth from a bandwidth of the received multicast video streams;
• and
• sending the one or more wireless-friendly multicast video streams to the one or more access point devices.