Patent ID: 6728777
Filing Date: 2004-04-27
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A method of engineering paths for multicast traffic in an IP network, comprising the steps of:a) defining a forwarding equivalence class for a control message of a multicast routing protocol at an egress label switching router; b) detecting, at said egress label switching router, said control message, which matches said defined forwarding equivalence class; c) obtaining a constraint route in the direction of the root prefix of a multicast tree for said detected control message at an egress label switching router; d) for each said detected control message, creating a forwarding state associated with said forwarding equivalence class and said constraint route by using the multicast routine protocol; e) attaching traffic engineering (TE) parameters containing said forwarding state information to said detected control message; f) allocating resources along said constraint route; and g) forwarding said detected control message to which said TE parameters have been attached, to said root along said route.