Methods and apparatus for multicast optimization
AssigneeSonos, Inc.
InventorsSteven Beckhardt, Hrishikesh Gossain, Nicholas A. J. Millington, Jeffrey M. Peters
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Certain examples accommodate multicast and unicast frame forwarding via wired and/or wireless port connections. An example method includes identifying a message including a frame of data to be directed to a group of playback devices via a network protocol. The example method includes overriding the network protocol for the group of playback devices to transmit a unicast message via direct routing to each member of the group of playback devices that is a “neighbor” of the first playback device.
Claims19
A method comprising:
- identifying, at a first playback device, a multicast message including a data frame to be directed to a group of playback devices via a network protocol;
- evaluate a number of outgoing ports of the network interface to identify a number of wired ports and a number of wireless ports;
- and
- based on the number of wired ports of the first playback device and an associated state of the wired ports, override the network protocol for the group of playback devices to enable direct routing to transmit a unicast message based on the multicast message via direct routing to each member of the group of playback devices that is a neighbor of the first playback device and maintaining the network protocol to transmit the multicast message via the network protocol to each member of the group of playback devices that is not a neighbor of the first playback device.
A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a machine to:
- identify a multicast message including a frame of data to be directed to a group of playback devices via a network protocol, the group of playback devices including a first playback device;
- evaluate a number of outgoing ports to identify a number of wired ports and a number of wireless ports;
- and
- based on the number of wired ports and an associated state of the wired ports, override the network protocol for the group of playback devices to enable direct routing to transmit a unicast message based on the multicast message via direct routing to each member of the group of playback devices that is a neighbor of the first playback device and maintain the network protocol to transmit the multicast message via the network protocol to each member of the group of playback devices that is not a neighbor of the first playback device.
A first media playback device, comprising:
- a network interface to receive and transmit a data message;
- a memory to store the data message;
- and
- a processor configured to:
- identify a multicast message including a frame of data to be directed to a group of playback devices via a network protocol, the group of playback devices including the first media playback device;
- evaluate a number of outgoing ports to identify a number of wired ports and a number of wireless ports;
- and
- based on the number of wired ports and an associated state of the wired ports, override the network protocol for the group of playback devices to enable direct routing to transmit a unicast message based on the multicast message via direct routing to each member of the group of playback devices that is a neighbor of the first media playback device and maintain the network protocol to transmit the multicast message via the network protocol to each member of the group of playback devices that is not a neighbor of the first media playback device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.