Patent ID: 6836480
Filing Date: 2004-12-28
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method of multicast transmission on a network processor comprising the steps of:storing the frame to be transmitted in a series of buffers, chained together by a linked list; associating a buffer control block with each buffer; associating a frame control block with each frame; receiving frames into a queue to await dispatch by a network processor; associating a queue control block with the queue of frames to be transmitted; assigning additional buffers and additional frame control blocks for each multicast target and linking these additional frame control blocks with the original frame control block associated with the frame; using a multicast counter to determine when the frame has been sent to each of the multicast targets; returning the buffers and frame control blocks assigned to each multicast target to free queues as the frame is sent to each target; and returning the original buffers and frame control blocks to the free queues after the frame has been sent to all of the multicast targets.