Patent ID: 8345683
Filing Date: 2013-01-01
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of avoiding duplicative forwarding of multicast traffic, comprising: receiving at a first router a join message directed to a peer router of the first router from a first downstream node of the first router and the peer router without passing through the peer router, the join message indicating that one or more downstream nodes of the peer desire to receive from the peer multicast traffic specified in the join message; determining whether the join message from the first downstream node to the peer would result in duplicative forwarding by the peer of multicast traffic from an upstream source upstream of the peer and the first router based on the join message; and initiating, based at least in part on a determination that the join message would result in duplicative forwarding of the multicast traffic, an election procedure to avoid such duplicative forwarding of the multicast traffic; wherein determining whether the join message to the peer would result in duplicative forwarding of the multicast traffic comprises determining whether the join message would result in two or more routers being configured to forward the same multicast traffic onto a same network segment before the two or more routers are configured to forward the same multicast traffic onto the same network segment; wherein determining whether the join message to the peer would result in duplicative forwarding of the multicast traffic comprises determining whether a previous join message associated with a multicast group with which the received join message is associated was received previously.