Patent ID: 6947434
Filing Date: 2005-09-20
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of distributing a message from a source to one or more hosts in a communications network that comprises one or more multicast capable routers, the method comprising: in a first multicast capable router, generating a first table that identifies sub-branches connected to the first multicast capable router, and for each identified sub-branch, includes membership-related information from which it can be determined how many hosts are part of the sub-branch; in the first multicast capable router, receiving the message to be distributed and a first value, N1, that specifies how many hosts the message is to be distributed to; in the first multicast capable router, using the first table to identify N1 hosts and their respective sub-branches; and in the first multicast capable router, distributing the message to each of the identified sub-branches along with a second value, N2, that specifies how many hosts within the sub-branch the message is to be distributed to.