Patent ID: 8203943

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a broadband network gateway, profile information from a server based on credentials of a subscriber, the profile information being associated with the subscriber, the subscriber connected to an access node via a residential gateway (RG) that has established a point-to-point protocol (PPP) or Internet protocol (IP) session with the access node, the profile information containing white-list, black-list and grey-list multicast control parameters; communicating the white-list, black-list, and grey-list multicast control parameters to the access node; receiving a confirmation message from the application of the multicast control parameters, which causes the access node to forward to the subscriber a first multicast group on the white-list responsive to a first message from the RG requesting joining of the first multicast group, block from the subscriber a second multicast group on the black-list responsive to a second message from the RG requesting joining of the second multicast group, and propagate a third message on a downstream path to the broadband network gateway, without autonomously creating a multicast forwarding entry, responsive to receiving the third message from the RG requesting joining of a third multicast group on the grey-list; receiving, by the broadband network gateway, the third message on the downstream path; and determining, by the broadband network gateway, that the third multicast group on the grey-list is to be forwarded to the subscriber based on a correlation of the third message to a current multicast policy for the subscriber, and only in response to the determination, communicating an instruction message to the access node allowing the access node to forward the third multicast group to the subscriber.