Patent ID: 8787205

Claim:
A system for multicast transmission of data over a network, the system comprising: a virtual exchange network embedded within the network, the virtual exchange network including a plurality of interconnected nodes; a plurality of sender-receivers disposed in communication with a set of edge nodes of the plurality of interconnected nodes, the plurality of sender-receivers configured to publish respective packetized data streams including virtual exchange network addresses, the plurality of sender-receivers configured to respectively subscribe to receive the published packetized data streams; a global multicast routing topology map disposed in the virtual exchange network, the global multicast routing topology map including a plurality of optimum virtual exchange network connections, each of the plurality of optimum virtual exchange network connections being defined by a pair of endpoints including at least two of the edge nodes of the set of edge nodes; and a plurality of local multicast routing topology maps disposed along the plurality of optimum virtual exchange network connections, each of the plurality of local multicast routing topology maps being a subset of the global multicast routing topology map to provide routing information for a defined area of the virtual exchange network, wherein the packetized data streams are propagated by implicit signaling through the plurality of optimum virtual exchange network connections according to the plurality of local multicast routing topology maps.