Patent ID: 8374182

Claim:
A network node that includes a plurality of ports via which multicast traffic is received or transmitted, the network node comprising: a memory to store information associated with a multicast forwarding table the information including: identifiers for one or more ports, of the plurality of ports, associated with a multicast virtual local area network (MVLAN) via which the multicast traffic is received by the network node, and identifiers for two or more receiver virtual local area networks (RVLANs) associated with two or more other ports, of the plurality of ports, via which the multicast traffic is to be received from the MVLAN, an identifier for at least one of the two or more RVLANs corresponding to an identifier for at least one of the one or more ports; and a processor to: receive the multicast traffic via a particular port of the one or more ports; perform, using the multicast forwarding table, a look up operation, based on an identifier for the particular port, to determine whether to send the multicast traffic via a first RVLAN of the two or more RVLANs, via a second RVLAN of the two or more RVLANs, or via the first RVLAN and the second RVLAN, transmit the multicast traffic, to a host device and via the first RVLAN, when the look up operation indicates that a first identifier, associated with the first RVLAN, corresponds to the identifier for the particular port, transmit the multicast traffic, to another host device and via the second RVLAN, when the look up operation indicates that a second identifier, associated with the second RVLAN, corresponds to the identifier for the particular port, transmit the multicast traffic, to the host device via the first RVLAN and to the other host device via the second RVLAN, when the look up operation indicates that the first identifier and the second identifier correspond to the identifier for the particular port, send, to a plurality of host devices and via the two or more other ports, a query to determine group membership associated with the multicast traffic, the group membership indicating whether the multicast traffic is to be received, receive, from at least one host device, of the plurality of host devices and via one of the two or more ports, a report based on the query, send the report to the plurality of ports when the MVLAN is configured in a transparent mode that permits the MVLAN to access other reports not associated with the MVLAN, and send the report to the particular port when the MVLAN is configured in a proxy mode that prevents the MVLAN from accessing other reports not associated with the MVLAN.