Embodiments of this application provide a message forwarding method and an apparatus, so that a message for joining a multicast group is sent to a multicast user plane network element, and the multicast user plane network element is triggered to establish a tunnel for transmitting multicast data between the multicast user plane network element and an application server. The method may include: a multicast session management network element receives the message that indicates that a terminal is joining the multicast group; and when the terminal is the 1.sup.st terminal the multicast group, sends, to the multicast user plane network element, a message that requests to establish the tunnel for transmitting the multicast data between the multicast user plane network element and the application server.

There is provided an apparatus. The apparatus is configured to: store information of a multicast session, the information comprising at least one identifier of the multicast session, and information about access to different content for the multicast session in a plurality of different location areas; and, in response to a request from a second apparatus, provide to the second apparatus information about access to content of the multicast session in at least one of the plurality of different location areas.

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described. A communication device, otherwise known as a user equipment (UE) may receive signaling indicating a set of multicast configurations for a set of multicast modes supported by the UE. Each multicast mode of the set of multicast modes may be associated with one or more radio resource control (RRC) states. The UE may determine a multicast configuration of the set of multicast configurations based on an RRC state according to which the UE is operating. The UE may receive, while operating according to the RRC state, multicast data according to the determined multicast configuration.

Techniques for utilizing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controllers and network border leaf nodes of respective cloud computing networks to configure a data transmission route for a multicast group. Each border leaf node may maintain a respective external sources database, including a number of records indicating associations between a multicast data source, one or more respective border leaf nodes disposed in the same network as the multicast data source, and network capability information. A border leaf node, disposed in the same network as a multicast data source, may broadcast a local source discovery message to all border leaf nodes in remote networks to which it is communicatively coupled. A border leaf node may also communicate network capability information associated with one or more remote networks to a local SDN controller. The SDN controller may utilize the network capability information to configure a data transmission route to one or more destination nodes.

Systems and methods are provided for reducing WAN bandwidth consumption used by multicast for large scale software-defined branch deployments. In particular, a cloud-based multicast orchestrator may be implemented as part of an SD-WAN service. This cloud-based multicast orchestrator may orchestrate routes for multicast traffic between a multicast source and the various branches of the large scale software-defined branch deployment. This cloud-based multicast orchestrator may orchestrate routes for multicast traffic which reduce/optimize WAN bandwidth consumption. In combination with the cloud-based multicast orchestrator, examples may utilize a branch gateway hierarchy which designates one branch gateway a “leader” for a given multicast stream to further reduce WAN bandwidth consumption used by multicast.

A network entity, such as a user equipment (UE), may request that a network provide multicast and broadcast services, e.g., where the request includes entity preferences such as network slice selection information. The network may provide information regarding provision of such services, where the information may include, for example, whether a service will be provided via a user plane or a control plane connection, network slice information, additional connections to be formed, separate encryption for such connections, etc. A Multicast/Broadcast Network Function (MBNF) may be used to establish such connections and manage a broadcast and multicast sessions. The MBNF may, for example, manage groups of entities, check an entity's access privileges for services, communicate with the a Management and Network Orchestration (MANO) system to reserve resources, and send data to entities over a shared control plane connection.

This application discloses a communications system, a communication method, and an apparatus thereof. The system includes: a multicast session management network element, an access and mobility management network element and a user plane function network element. The multicast session management network element sends a first multicast session request carrying a multicast session context to the access and mobility management network element to request to establish a multicast session based on the multicast session context; and sends a second multicast session request to the user plane function network element, where the second multicast session request carries user plane forwarding-related information indicating a user plane forwarding rule of the multicast session. The access and mobility management network element sends the first multicast session request to an access network node. The user plane function network element sets, based on the user plane forwarding-related information, the user plane forwarding rule of the multicast session.

Methods, apparatus, and processor-readable storage media for pairing multiple devices into a designated group for a communication session are provided herein. An example computer-implemented method includes processing, via at least a portion of multiple processing devices, information associated with a network in connection with one or more device pairing requests from one or more of the processing devices; implementing, via at least one the multiple processing devices, a pairing algorithm, wherein the pairing algorithm comprises searching for one or more of the processing devices, in accordance with one or more temporal values associated with the at least one processing device and at least one of the one or more device pairing requests corresponding thereto, and one or more pairing parameters; and automatically pairing, via the network and based on the pairing algorithm, the at least one processing device to one or more of the processing devices.

The present disclosure provides example message forwarding methods, devices, and systems. In one example method, a message server adds a first attribute tag for some group members in a group. Based on the first attribute tag, the message server creates a first subgroup consisting of the some group members. The message server receives a subgroup message including the first attribute tag, and the message server determines the first subgroup based on the first attribute tag. The message server then forwards the subgroup message to the determined first subgroup.

A gateway device and a configuration client for supporting selective forwarding of messages published to a group address or a virtual address in a wireless mesh network of communicatively coupled communication devices, such as a Bluetooth Mesh system. The configuration client maintains a mapping between unicast addresses of communication devices and group and virtual addresses in the network. The gateway device receives, from the configuration client, unicast addresses of those communication devices collectively identified by the group or virtual address in a received message. When the retrieved unicast addresses are all serviced by the gateway device, the message is transmitted by the gateway device on all interfaces corresponding to the communication devices addressed by the retrieved unicast addresses. When the retrieved unicast addresses are not all serviced by the gateway device, the message is transmitted by the gateway device on all except one of the interfaces.