EXTENDING MULTICAST/BROADCAST SERVICES TO WIDE AREA NETWORKS
Systems and methods are described for extending multicast/broadcast service to wide area networks. A computerized method includes receiving a multicast/broadcast discovery message from a client, encapsulating the multicast/broadcast discovery message at a gateway, forwarding the encapsulated multicast/broadcast discovery message to a multicast/broadcast server, receiving a multicast/broadcast discovery response message from the multicast/broadcast server with a server IP address, generating a server alias IP address for the multicast/broadcast server at the gateway, replacing the server IP address with the server alias IP address in the multicast/broadcast discovery response message, encapsulating the multicast/broadcast discovery response message at the gateway, and forwarding the encapsulated multicast/broadcast discovery response message to the client.
1 . A computerized method, comprising:
receiving a multicast/broadcast discovery message from a client;
encapsulating the multicast/broadcast discovery message at a gateway;
forwarding the encapsulated multicast/broadcast discovery message to a multicast/broadcast server;
receiving a multicast/broadcast discovery response message from the multicast/broadcast server with a server IP address;
generating a server alias IP address for the multicast/broadcast server at the gateway;
replacing the server IP address with the server alias IP address in the multicast/broadcast discovery response message;
encapsulating the multicast/broadcast discovery response message at the gateway; and
forwarding the encapsulated multicast/broadcast discovery response message to the client.
2 . The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast/broadcast server is a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)-compatible server, the multicast/broadcast discovery message is a DLNA discovery message, and the multicast/broadcast discovery response message is a DLNA discovery response message.
3 . The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast/broadcast discovery message is encapsulated with an outer destination address and an outer source address.
4 . The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast/broadcast discovery message is encapsulated in a tunnel managed by the gateway.
5 . The computerized method of claim 4 , wherein the tunnel is a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel.
6 . The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast/broadcast discovery response message is encapsulated with an outer destination address and an outer source address.
7 . The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast/broadcast discovery response message is encapsulated in a tunnel managed by the gateway.
8 . The computerized method of claim 7 , wherein the tunnel is a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel.
9 . The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the client is within a local network behind the gateway and the multicast/broadcast server is outside the local network.
10 . The computerized method of claim 1 , wherein the multicast/broadcast server is within a local network behind the gateway and the client is outside the local network.
11 . A computerized method, comprising:
receiving a multicast/broadcast control package message from a client with a server alias IP address of a multicast/broadcast server;
replacing the server alias IP address in the multicast/broadcast control package message with a server IP address of the multicast/broadcast server at a gateway;
forwarding the multicast/broadcast control package message to the multicast/broadcast server based on the server IP address;
receiving a multicast/broadcast control package response message from the multicast/broadcast server with the server IP address;
replacing the server IP address in the multicast/broadcast control package response message with the server alias IP address; and
forwarding the replaced multicast/broadcast control package response message to the client.
12 . The computerized method of claim 11 , wherein the multicast/broadcast server is a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)-compatible server, the multicast/broadcast control package message includes a HTTP Get message, and the multicast/broadcast control package response message includes a HTTP Response message.
13 . The computerized method of claim 11 , further comprising removing encapsulation of the multicast/broadcast control package message.
14 . The computerized method of claim 13 , wherein the encapsulation is in a tunnel managed by the gateway.
15 . The computerized method of claim 14 , wherein the tunnel is a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel.
16 . The computerized method of claim 11 , further comprising encapsulating the multicast/broadcast control package response message with an outer destination address and an outer source address before forwarding the multicast/broadcast control package response message to the client.
17 . The computerized method of claim 16 , wherein the multicast/broadcast control package response message is encapsulated in a tunnel managed by the gateway.
18 . The computerized method of claim 17 , wherein the tunnel is a Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) tunnel.
19 . The computerized method of claim 11 , wherein the client is within a local network behind the gateway and the multicast/broadcast server is outside the local network.
20 . The computerized method of claim 11 , wherein the multicast/broadcast server is within a local network behind the gateway and the client is outside the local network.
21 . A network gateway serving as a multicast/broadcast proxy, comprising:
an access network interface configured to receive a multicast/broadcast message from a client destined to a multicast/broadcast server;
a router network interface configured to forward the multicast/broadcast message to the multicast/broadcast server;
a multicast/broadcast server database containing information about available multicast/broadcast servers;
an address translation module configured to translate between a server IP address and a server alias IP address of the multicast/broadcast server in the multicast/broadcast message; and
an encapsulation module configured to encapsulate the multicast/broadcast message and remove encapsulation from an encapsulated multicast/broadcast message.
22 . The network gateway of claim 21 , further comprising a configuration manager configured to set up the network gateway.
23 . The network gateway of claim 22 , wherein the configuration manage is configured to set at least one of a Gateway Access IP address and a Gateway Router IP address.
24 . The network gateway of claim 21 , wherein the multicast/broadcast message is a multicast/broadcast discovery message.
25 . The network gateway of claim 21 , wherein the multicast/broadcast message is a multicast/broadcast control package message.
26 . The network gateway of claim 21 , wherein the multicast/broadcast server is a DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)-compatible server.
27 . The network gateway of claim 21 , wherein the client is within a local network behind the network gateway and the multicast/broadcast server is outside the local network.
28 . The network gateway of claim 21 , wherein the multicast/broadcast server is within a local network behind the network gateway and the client is outside the local network.