Patent ID: 6873627

Claim:
A method for sending packets over a computer network, comprising: a) receiving a packet sent by a sender to at least one receiver, the packet comprising a parameter relating to a multicast announce address; b) associating a forwarding rule set with the packet if the parameter has a defined value; c) using the forwarding rules set to determine if any of the at least one destination addresses associated with the multicast announce address corresponds to a receiver that has a receiver format that must be converted, where the forwarding rules set defines when a packet should be converted from a sender format to a receiver format before forwarding the packet; d) converting the packet from the sender format to the receiver format for each destination address identified in step (c)(b) as requiring conversion; e) forwarding the packet in accordance with the forwarding rules set; and f) configuring the forwarding rules set to be responsive to the addresses and formats of all senders and receivers on the computer network.