Patent ID: 8149832

Claim:
A method of operating a multiprotocol label switching network to perform multicast communications, comprising: pushing a plurality of multiprotocol label switching shim headers simultaneously onto a packet at a node; replicating the packet at the node to obtain a plurality of packets for transmission on a plurality of paths associated with a plurality of nodes, respectively, wherein each of the plurality of packets is to be transmitted to a different ultimate destination; popping at least one multiprotocol label switching shim header from respective ones of the plurality of packets at the node, the at least one multiprotocol label switching shim header corresponding to at least one of the plurality of nodes that is not associated with one of the plurality of paths for which one of the plurality of packets comprising the at least one multiprotocol label switching shim header is destined for transmission; then transmitting the plurality of packets on the plurality of paths to the different ultimate destinations, respectively.