Patent ID: 9319347
Filing Date: 2016-04-19
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: configuring, by a network device for each packet replicator of a plurality of packet replicators of the network device, a plurality of partitions of a packet buffer of the packet replicator to store multicast packet data received by the network device; generating, by the network device, a plurality of multi-level replication data structures each having nodes hierarchically arranged in a plurality of levels that define an internal forwarding relationship among the nodes, wherein each node represents one of the plurality of packet replicators; generating, by the network device from the plurality of multi-level replication data structures, forwarding information that maps the plurality of levels of each of the plurality of multi-level replication data structures to respective partitions of the plurality of partitions of packet buffers of the plurality of packet replicators; and internally forwarding, by the plurality of packet replicators according to the forwarding information, the multicast packet data received by the network device.