Patent ID: 8503446

Claim:
A method of tracking multicast subscription of distributed multicast devices in an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast implementation having an Internet Group Membership Protocol (IGMP) router connected to a network, a Network Management System (NMS) connected to the network, and a plurality of multicast devices connected to the IGMP router, the method comprising: receiving, at the IGMP router from the NMS, a multicast group access privilege associated with each of the plurality of multicast devices; storing, at the IGMP router, a subscription record associated with each of the plurality of multicast devices; receiving, at the IGMP router, a multicast group access request from a sending multicast device of the plurality of multicast devices, said multicast group access request identifying a requested multicast channel and identifying the sending multicast device; determining whether the sending multicast device is authorized to access the requested multicast channel based on the multicast group access privilege associated with the sending multicast device; if the sending multicast device is authorized to access the requested multicast channel: providing the requested multicast channel to the sending multicast device, and updating the subscription record associated with the sending multicast device so that the subscription record includes a record of the multicast group access request received from the multicast device and an identification of the multicast device; receiving a subscription history request from said NMS at said IGMP router; and sending the subscription record associated with the sending multicast device from the IGMP router to the NMS in response to the subscription history request, wherein the multicast group access privilege associated with the sending multicast device indicates: which channels the sending multicast device is allowed to request; and the number of channels the sending multicast device is allowed to simultaneously receive.