Patent ID: 9369304
Filing Date: 2016-06-14
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: receiving, at a forwarding device, a multicast broadcast packet associated with a subnet in a forwarding domain, the multicast broadcast packet including an additional header, the additional header indicating a distribution tree, wherein the distribution tree comprises a multicast distribution tree, wherein the multicast distribution tree is selected among multiple multicast distribution trees, each multicast distribution tree from the multiple multicast distribution trees being used for a respective multicast traffic source for a respective single subnet, the respective single subnet being from a plurality of subnets provided in the forwarding domain; determining whether the forwarding device is an intended receiver of the multicast broadcast packet; and responsive to determining that the forwarding device is the intended receiver of the multicast broadcast packet, sending a copy of the multicast broadcast packet to a local processing unit of the forwarding device for processing.