Ruckus Wireless Awarded Patent for IP Multicast-to-Unicast Conversion

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the European Patent Office (EPO) have each awarded Ruckus Wireless a patent on conversion of multicast to unicast transmissions.


For 802.11 networks where multicast information delivery is not guaranteed, multicast-to-unicast conversion is essential to providing more reliable transmissions and more predictable performance for loss- and delay-sensitive multimedia applications.


Ruckus said its multicast-to-unicast patent is particularly significant to the wireless networking industry as the growing demand for wireless multimedia communications coincides with the rise in Wi-Fi usage everywhere. The multicast-to-unicast conversion, part of the Ruckus SmartCast quality of service engine, is integrated within Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi products. SmartCast comprises a variety of traffic handling and quality of service technologies specifically developed to improve the transmission of delay-sensitive traffic over 802.11 networks dramatically.


Originally filed in November 2004, the multicast conversion patent is one of nearly two dozen patents granted to Ruckus with dozens more pending approval.
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