Patent ID: 8510551

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving a unicast packet designating a unicast source and a unicast destination; determining whether the unicast packet is a Data Register message; identifying information relating to a multicast packet embedded within the unicast packet when the unicast packet is a Data Register message, identifying the information relating to the multicast packet including extracting, from the multicast packet, information that includes: a source Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with the multicast packet, a multicast group destination IP address associated with the multicast packet, a protocol identifier associated the multicast packet, a source port associated with the multicast packet, and a destination port associated with the multicast packet; performing a security policy lookup, based on the extracted information, to identify a security policy associated with the multicast packet; determining whether the identified security policy authorizes forwarding of the unicast packet; establishing a multicast data session when the identified security policy authorizes forwarding of the unicast packet; and forwarding the unicast packet to the unicast destination based on establishing the multicast data session.