Patent ID: 7643507
Filing Date: 2010-01-05
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus, comprising: a packet receiver adapted to receive both unicast and multicast packets; a forwarding unit that includes a unicast forwarder and a multicast forwarder, the unicast forwarder being adapted to forward a unicast packet to a destination upon receipt of the unicast packet by the packet receiver, the multicast forwarder being adapted to multicast a multicast packet to respective output interfaces upon receipt of the multicast packet by the packet receiver; a packet duplicator adapted to convert the multicast packet output from the multicast forwarder into a plurality of unicast packets; a packet dispatcher adapted to determine whether the plurality of unicast packets converted by the packet duplicator are to be reintroduced back into the forwarding unit or be directly transmitted, the packet dispatcher being further adapted to reintroduce the plurality of unicast packets converted by the packet duplicator back into the forwarding unit or directly transmit them based on said determination; and a scheduler adapted to port-schedule packets output from the forwarding unit and packets directly transmitted from the packet duplicator according to a scheduling policy.