Patent ID: 8149859

Claim:
A method for minimizing the number of channels making available a multicast group to a plurality of CPE devices, comprising: receiving a plurality of first multicast management messages on each of a plurality of CPE interfaces available to a first CPE device, each of the plurality of first multicast management messages being respectively associated with one of the plurality of CPE interfaces, and each of the first multicast management messages including information that associates one or more multicast groups with a channel operable to deliver the each of the plurality of multicast groups, the channel being based upon the interface at which a respective multicast management message was received; associating all channels that are associated with respective multicast groups from the plurality of multicast groups in the plurality of first multicast management messages with their corresponding multicast group or groups in a channel association table; and removing previously associated channel associations with a corresponding multicast group, or groups, from the channel association table that are not included in the plurality of first multicast management messages; determining that a particular multicast group is populated on multiple channels received at the first CPE device; sending a notification to a central device that the multicast group is populated on multiple channels received at the first CPE device based on the determination.