Patent ID: 7420972

Claim:
A method of replicating multicast packets within a network router having a plurality of interfaces, the method comprising: defining a hierarchical relationship for a plurality of packet replicators located within the network router, wherein each of the plurality of packet replicators is associated with a set of one or more of the interfaces of the network router; associating the hierarchical relationship of packet replicators with a corresponding multicast list; storing the hierarchical relationship and the association with the corresponding multicast list within each of the plurality of packet replicators; receiving a multicast packet associated with the multicast list via one of the interfaces of the network router; performing de-centralized replication by replicating the multicast packet using the packet replicators of the network router to produce a plurality of replicated multicast packets, wherein the de-centralized replication is performed in accordance with the hierarchical relationship of the packet replicators associated with the multicast list; and outputting the replicated multicast packets on a plurality of the interfaces of the network router.