Patent ID: 7769007
Filing Date: 2010-08-03
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. In a provider edge in a virtual private local area network (LAN) in which the provider edge, a customer edge, and a management system are connected to each other, a method of providing multicast services comprising: establishing a virtual private LAN service (VPLS) table used to transmit a received Ethernet frame to a destination; after receiving an Ethernet frame from the customer edge, searching the VPLS table in order to determine whether or not group information related to the destination of the Ethernet frame exists in the VPLS table; if the group information does not exist, requesting the group information from the management system, receiving the information, and then, updating the VPLS table by adding the received group information; and determining an output interface by referring to the group information, and transmitting the Ethernet frame; wherein the requesting, receiving and updating of the group information comprise: determining whether or not the group information request of the provider edge relates to the ICMP packet received by the provider edge; if the request relates to the ICMP packet, transmitting to the provider edge a corresponding group ID in the management table; and notifying all customer edges having an identical group ID in the management table of customers in the identical group.