Patent ID: 7974283

Claim:
A method of processing a multicast service flow in a Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS), the method comprising: classifying an inputted multicast packet by a session, wherein the classified multicast packet has a first service flow, which is based on the inputted multicast packet, and wherein the classified multicast packet has a first downstream-schedule, which is based on the first service flow of the inputted multicast packet; searching for an address of a service flow information table from a multicast lookup table including service flow address information corresponding to the classified multicast session; extracting internal header information including downstream service identifier information from the service flow information table; composing an internal header including multicast service flow information allocated to the classified session; and outputting an internal multicast packet including the internal header, wherein the internal multicast packet is outputted having the first downstream schedule, and wherein the internal multicast packet is outputted having a second service flow, which the internal multicast packet is outputted with a same scheme used for the downstream scheduling as if the first service flow was used, and wherein the first service flow is different than the second service flow.