Patent ID: 8068490

Claim:
A device comprising: a multicast address translator to receive a request for multicast data from one or more multicast receivers, wherein a content source device is configured to transmit the multicast data to a first multicast group having one or more multicast destination endpoints, and wherein the multicast address translator is configured to join the first multicast group as a multicast destination endpoint responsive to the request; an input port to receive the multicast data from the content source device for placement on a switching context, wherein the multicast data includes a destination address of the first multicast group having the multicast address translator as a member, and wherein the multicast address translator is configured to remove the multicast data from the switching context; and a translation matrix including a multicast group-to-multicast group mapping and multicast replication information, wherein the multicast group-to-multicast group mapping is configured to map globally-scoped multicast addresses to locally-scoped multicast addresses, wherein the multicast address translator is configured to compare the destination address of the multicast data with the multicast group-to-multicast group mapping and to compare the input port that received the multicast data with the multicast replication information, wherein the multicast address translator is configured to replicate the multicast data when the multicast data matches both the multicast group-to-multicast group mapping and the multicast replication information in the translation matrix, wherein the multicast address translator is configured to utilize the multicast group-to-multicast group mapping to determine a destination address of a second multicast group based on the destination address of the first multicast group and to translate a destination address of the replicated multicast data to the destination address of the second multicast group, and wherein the multicast address translator is configured to place the replicated multicast data with the translated destination address on the switching context for forwarding to the one or more multicast receivers associated with the request according to the translated destination address of the second multicast group.