Patent ID: 6330238
Filing Date: 2001-12-11
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A multicast transmission method of, in a system in which a plurality of nodes are connected through a communication network to each other to be mutually communicable, making a data transmitting node of said plurality of nodes, in which a multicast transmission request occurs, transmit data to a node of said plurality of nodes, which belongs to a specific group, through said communication network,wherein each of said plurality of nodes includes a communication driver having, as a basic communicating function, a function to issue and send a data send message for sending data to a receive buffer defined in advance in a data receiving node, a data get command for designating data in a memory of a given node to make a request for a transmission of said data to the given node, and a data send command for designating a memory address in a data receiving node to transmit data, and when a node belongs to said specific group, a multicast address designating said specific group is set and registered in a multicast table included in the node belonging to said specific group, and said data transmitting node broadcasts said data send message, to which said multicast address designating said specific group is added, through said communication network to all said plurality of nodes while each of said nodes receiving said multicast address through said data send message refers to its own multicast table to decide whether or not a multicast address coincident with the received multicast address exists within said multicast table, and a node, in which the same multicast address exists within said multicast table, serves as a data receiving node to make a request for a transmission of data corresponding to said multicast transmission request to said data transmitting node through the use of said basic communication function so that said data is transmitted from said data transmitting node to the node serving as said data receiving node.