System and method to support multicast routing in large scale wireless mesh networks

A communications network, the network comprising:

• a plurality of wireless nodes;
• a plurality of fixed infrastructure nodes communicatively coupled to a backbone;
• a multicast group including at least some of the wireless nodes and at least some of the fixed infrastructure nodes, the multicast group comprising:
• a plurality of local multicast trees each rooted at a local multicast group leader selected from the plurality of the fixed infrastructure nodes, and further each local multicast tree comprising at least one wireless node,
• wherein the multicast group operates to distribute a message packet to the plurality of wireless nodes and the plurality of fixed infrastructure nodes by:
• transmitting the message packet destined for a plurality of destination nodes, wherein each of the plurality of destination nodes is a member of at least one local multicast tree, and further wherein each of the plurality of destination nodes is a member of at least one multicast group identified by a multicast group address associated with the multicast group, from a node to a first local multicast group leader, wherein the message packet includes the multicast group address;
• forwarding the message packet to the backbone by the first local multicast group leader;
• receiving the message packet by at least one other local multicast group leader via the backbone;
• and
• distributing the message packet to the plurality of destination nodes by each of the at least one other local multicast group leaders distributing the message packet to each member having the multicast group address of its associated local multicast tree;
• packets carrying a sequence number in a packet header;
• at least one multicast group member operating to delete a packet newly received when the packet carries a sequence number that has been previously received by the at least one multicast group member;
• and accept a packet newly received when the packet carries a sequence number that has not been previously received by the at least one multicast group member.