Patent ID: 8238337
Filing Date: 2012-08-07
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for a switch having a plurality of ports including a first port, a second port, and a third port, the method comprising: establishing a first virtual local-area network (VLAN) including the first port that communicates with a network and the second port that communicates with a first client; establishing a second VLAN including the first port and the third port that communicates with a second client; establishing a multicast VLAN including the plurality of ports; receiving a multicast join message representing a request to join a multicast group from the first client into the second port; creating an association between the multicast group and the plurality of ports associated with the multicast VLAN based on the multicast join message; creating an entry for the multicast group in a multicast table, the entry including the plurality of ports; removing the third port included in the second and multicast VLANs from the entry in the multicast table without receiving a message to leave the association when the second client attached to the third port is not associated with the multicast group, the third port being unavailable to receive or forward packets subsequent to the removing; joining the multicast group by transmitting a network-layer routing protocol message to the network from the first port; receiving a multicast packet for the multicast group from the network into the first port; and transmitting the multicast packet on the multicast VLAN based on the association.