Patent ID: 7295525

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of adding a new node to a network multicast group, with a specified group membership status, wherein members of a corresponding routing tree route multicast messages among members of the group, the method comprising: selecting a minimum spanning tree of the network; selecting the new node as the current node; examining the routing tree membership statuses of nodes that are linked to the current node by links included in the minimum spanning tree; until said examining is halted, selecting a peer node of the current node as the current node and repeating said examining; halting the examining when a final node is examined if: the final node is a Full member of the routing tree; or the final node is a SendOnly member of the routing tree and the specified group membership status of the new node is SendOnly; and for each given node in the path from the new node to the final node, setting the routing tree membership status of the given node equal to the specified group membership status of the new node.