Patent ID: 7193974
Filing Date: 2007-03-20
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. In a network environment having a server connected to a router which does not forward multicast traffic, the router connected to a plurality of switches, each switch connected to a plurality of subnets and to forward multicast traffic, a method for automatically establishing a discovered set of subnets as an alias domain comprising the following operations performed by the server: discovering a set of subnets from amongst all of the subnets that are connected to the plurality of switches, the set of subnets having visibility of a broadcast or multicast transmission; selecting a network element to perform the broadcast or multicast transmission, the network element being in one subnet of the set of subnets; sending a transmission job identifier to the network element, wherein the broadcast or multicast transmission to be performed by the network element will include said identifier and the address of said one subnet of the set of subnets; and receiving an indication from the network element that it is aware of an alias domain representative being in another one subnet of the set of subnets.