Abstract: The present invention includes a method and apparatus for broadcast distribution of messages and information. Included within the present invention are means for selectively broadcasting messages to specified locales. Further, only the appropriate receiver within that locale operates to receive the message. At the receiver, the message is transmitted to or receivable by the appropriate recipient. In the event that a message is inadvertently lost or transmitted with noise induced errors means are provided for requesting a retransmission of the message.

Abstract: A method for ensuring accurate reception of digitally encoded messages that are transmitted over a broadcast network to a plurality of receivers. Each message is divided into packets and the set of packets comprising each message is cyclically retransmitted for a selected number of transmission cycles. Typically, from two to five transmission cycles are sufficient to ensure accurate reception of each message. Each packet includes all or part of a digitally encoded message, a header, and a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) code (or other error code). Each header identifies the message to which the packet belongs and the position of the packet within the message. Each receiver in the network stores an address in an internal memory, and is capable of comparing a transmitted address (in the header of one or more of the packets in each message) with its stored address and accepting only those packets having an appropriate address.