Inventors:
Daniel S. Rubenstein - Belchertown MA
James F. Kurose - Northampton MA
Donald F. Towsley - Amherst MA
Assignee:
University of Massachusetts - Boston MA
International Classification:
H04L 324
Abstract:
Apparatus and methods for multicasting blocks of data to a plurality of receivers, the blocks including a first block and a second block, the first block comprising k. sub. 1. gtoreq. 1 data packets, the transmission of the first block comprising an initial transmission of the k. sub. 1 data packets and h. sub. 1. gtoreq. repair packets and one or more subsequent transmissions of additional repair packets in response to repair requests, wherein any k. sub. 1 of the data packets and repair packets provide sufficient information to recover the k. sub. 1 data packets; and multicasting a second block comprising k. sub. 2. gtoreq. 1 data packets, the transmission of the second block comprising an initial transmission of the k. sub. 2 data packets and h. sub. 2. gtoreq. repair packets, wherein any k. sub.