Method and apparatus for processing multicast frame

1. A method of processing a multicast frame in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the method comprising:

initiating a directed multicast service (DMS) in which at least one multicast frame is transmitted as at least one unicast frame by an access point (AP);

receiving the at least one multicast frame from the access point (AP), the at least one multicast frame being transmitted as the at least one unicast frame;

terminating the DMS by receiving a termination message indicating a termination of the DMS from the AP;

after the termination of the DMS, determining whether a received multicast frame is duplicated with the at least one multicast frame; and

discarding the received multicast frame if the multicast frame is duplicated with the at least one multicast frame,

wherein the termination message includes a sequence control field, the sequence control field indicating a sequence number of a last multicast frame transmitted as a unicast frame, and

wherein the determining whether the received multicast frame is duplicated is based on the sequence control field.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of initiating the DMS includes:

transmitting a request message for requesting the DMS to the AP; and

receiving a response message from the AP in response to the request frame,

wherein the request message includes at least one requested multicast group address for the DMS.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:

acquiring mapping information related to at least one multicast address, the at least one multicast group address being accepted by the AP from the at least one requested multicast group address; and

determining whether the received multicast frame is duplicated with the at least one multicast frame based on the mapping information, until the DMS is terminated.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein, if a multicast group address of the received multicast frame matches the at least one multicast group address, the received multicast frame is determined to have been duplicated.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the received multicast is determined to have been duplicated when a sequence number of the received multicast frame is same to or smaller than the sequence number indicated by the sequence control field.

6. A wireless apparatus for processing a multicast frame in a wireless local area network (WLAN), the apparatus comprising:

a radio frequency (RF) unit; and

a processor operatively coupled to the RF unit and configured to:

initiate a directed multicast service (DMS) in which at least one multicast frame is transmitted as at least one unicast frame by an access point (AP),

receive the at least one multicast frame from the AP, the at least one multicast frame being transmitted as the at least one unicast frame,

terminate the DMS by receiving a termination message indicating a termination of the DMS from the AP,

after the termination of the DMS, determine whether a received multicast frame is duplicated with the at least one multicast frame, and

discard the received multicast frame if the received multicast frame is duplicated with the at least one multicast frame,

wherein the termination message includes a sequence control field, the sequence control field indicating a sequence number of a last multicast frame transmitted as a unicast frame, and

wherein the determining whether the received multicast frame is duplicated is based on the sequence control field.

7. The wireless apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to initiate the DMS by:

transmitting a request message for requesting the DMS to the AP; and

receiving a response message from the AP in response to the request frame,

wherein the request message includes at least one requested multicast group address for the DMS.

8. The wireless apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to:

acquire mapping information related to at least on multicast group address, the at least one multicast group address being accepted by the AP from the at least one requested multicast group address, and

determine whether the received multicast frame is duplicated with the at least one multicast frame based on the mapping information, until the DMS is terminated.

9. The wireless apparatus of claim 8 , wherein the processor is configured to determine that the received multicast frame is duplicated if a multicast group address of the received multicast frame matches the at least one multicast group address.

10. The wireless apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to determine that the received multicast frame is duplicated when a sequence number of the received multicast frame is same to or smaller than the sequence number indicated by the sequence control field.