METHOD FOR ENHANCED HANDLING OF MULTICAST DATA STREAMS WITHIN A BROADBAND ACCESS NETWORK OF A TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK, TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK, AND SYSTEM FOR ENHANCED HANDLING OF MULTICAST DATA STREAMS WITHIN A BROADBAND ACCESS NETWORK OF A TELECOMMUNICATIONS NETWORK, PROGRAM AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT

摘要

The invention relates to a method for enhanced handling of multicast data streams within a broadband access network of a telecommunications network, wherein the broadband access network comprises a plurality of service edge nodes to be connected to customer premises equipments, the customer premises equipments being provided to be connected to the broadband access network for handling both unicast traffic and multicast data streams between the customer premises equipments and the broadband access network, wherein, for transmitting unicast traffic-related data packets between a specific service edge node and a specific customer premises equipment, a point-to-point-protocol connection or a tunneling protocol connection is established between the specific service edge node and the specific customer premises equipment, the point-to-point-protocol connection or the tunneling protocol connection having assigned a session identifier information, wherein –in case that a multicast data stream, comprising multicast data stream-related data packets, is to be transmitted to the specific customer premises equipment –the method comprises the following steps: - in a first step, the specific service edge node receives a join request message from the specific customer premises equipment, - in a second step subsequent to the first step, an activation request message is transmitted, by the specific service edge node, to a multicast controller node within the broadband access network, wherein by means of the activation request message, at least part of the join request message is forwarded to the multicast controller node together with the session identifier information of the point-to-point-protocol connection or the tunneling protocol connection being established between the specific service edge node and the specific customer premises equipment, - in a third step subsequent to the second step, the multicast controller node generates and/or replicates the multicast data stream-related data packets and injects these multicast data stream-related data packets, using the corresponding session identifier information, into the existing point-to-point-protocol connection or the tunneling protocol connection between the specific service edge node and the specific customer premises equipment.