Patent ID: 8913620

Claim:
A computer program product of forwarding a multicast data frame in a distributed switch comprising a plurality of switches, the computer program product comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code embodied therewith, the computer-readable program code comprising computer-readable program code configured to: receive a multicast data frame on a receiving port of an ingress switch in the distributed switch, wherein the receiving port of the ingress switch is associated with a first bridge element; determine destination switches in the distributed switch that should receive at least a portion of the multicast data frame, wherein the portion of the multicast data frame is at least a portion of a payload of the multicast data frame, and wherein at least one connection interface in the ingress switch is configured to forward the portion of the multicast data frame from the first bridge element to a second bridge element in the ingress switch; and forward the portion of the multicast data frame from the ingress switch to a first surrogate switch in a hierarchy, wherein the first surrogate switch is assigned in the hierarchy to forward the portion of the multicast data frame to both of: a computing device coupled to the first surrogate switch that is at least one final destination of the multicast data frame and a second surrogate switch in the hierarchy, wherein the first surrogate switch is one of the plurality of switches in the distributed switch, wherein each of the plurality of switches include at least two bridge elements that are each associated with at least one connection interface on the switches, and wherein a connection interface of the first surrogate switch is associated with a third bridge element, wherein the connection interface of the first surrogate switch is configured to forward the portion of the multicast data frame from the third bridge element to a fourth bridge element in the first surrogate switch.