Patent ID: 8345540

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, with one of a plurality of ring network devices configured in a ring topology to form a ring network, ring messages from one or more of the other ring network devices in accordance with a group management ring protocol, wherein the ring messages indicate operations requested by one or more host devices with respect to delivery of content of a multicast group, and wherein the one or more host devices are coupled to the ring network devices; and presenting, with the one of the ring network devices, the requested operations to an adjacent network device such that, from the perspective of the adjacent network device, the ring network appears as a single layer two network device, wherein the one of the ring network devices couples directly to the adjacent network device, and wherein the adjacent network device provides access to the content of the multicast group; wherein receiving ring messages comprises receiving a join ring message requesting to join the multicast group, wherein the method further comprises generating a join message based on the join ring message so that the join message appears to originate from one of the one or more host devices, and wherein presenting the received operations comprises forwarding the generated join message to the adjacent ring network device so that, from the perspective of the adjacent ring network device, the single layer two network devices appears to forward the join message to the adjacent ring network device.