Communication quality management and apparatus

A communication quality management apparatus for multicasting data from a distribution server to reception terminals via a router connected to a network, the apparatus comprising:

• a server proxy arranged between the distribution server and the router to add quality information to a multicast packet received from the distribution server and retransmit the multicast packet with the added quality information via the router;
• a reception terminal proxy arranged between the router and the reception terminal and including
• a quality information acquisition unit which acquires, from the multicast packet, the quality information added by said server proxy and
• a quality information calculation/transmission unit, said reception terminal proxy distributing, to the reception terminal, the multicast packet from which the quality information is removed;
• and
• an accumulation server which receives and accumulates the quality information from said reception terminal proxy.

A communication quality management apparatus for multicasting data from a distribution server to reception terminals via a router connected to a network, the apparatus comprising:

• a server proxy arranged between the distribution server and the router to add quality information as a quality information header to a multicast packet received from the distribution server and retransmit the multicast packet with the added quality information via the router;
• reception terminal proxies arranged between the router and corresponding reception terminals, which reception terminal proxies distribute the multicast packet to the reception terminals, the reception terminal proxies including:
• a quality information acquisition unit, which removes the quality information header from the multicast packet, acquires the quality information from the quality information header, and distributes the multicast packet, from
• which the quality information header is removed, to the corresponding reception terminal, and
• a quality information calculation/transmission unit, which processes the acquired quality information and calculates results based on the processed quality information;
• and
• an accumulation server which receives and accumulates the quality information and the calculation results from each reception terminal proxy for each of the reception terminals.