A system, computer program and method to multicast messages to workstations in
a network (10). The system uses an MDP database table (140) which
stores the parameters used to manage transmission and reception of multicast messages
in the network (10). An MDP server initialization module (100) executing
on a server reads the parameters from the MDP database table (140) and initialize
an MDP session. The system also uses an MDP client initialization module (130)
to read the necessary parameters in the MDP database table (140) and initialize
an MDP session in a client workstation that receives multicast messages. An MDP
server operations module (120) is used to receive requests to transmit messages
and transmit repair packets to a workstation designated as action workstations
when a negative acknowledgment is received. An MDP client operations module (140)
receives messages transmitted by the MDP server operations module only transmits
a negative acknowledgment to a server upon receipt of an MDP information packet
if the workstation is designated as an info only workstation in the MDP information packet.