Patent ID: 8553691

Claim:
A method of multicasting a packet comprising: receiving the packet at a first line card of a plurality of line cards in a system; determining if the packet requires multicasting; sending, responsive to the packet requiring multicasting, the packet with a multicast header to a fabric switch of the system; replicating, by the fabric switch, the packet to obtain a replicated packet; sending, by the fabric switch, the replicated packet to one or more line cards of the plurality of line cards; receiving, by the first line card, the replicated packet from the fabric switch; determining, by the first line card, if any egress endpoints of a service associated with the packet and that correspond to the first line card are ineligible to receive a duplicate packet of the replicated packet; and providing, by the first line card, the duplicate packet to each egress endpoint of the service that correspond to the first line card except any such egress endpoint determined to be ineligible to receive the duplicate packet; receiving, by a second line card, the replicated packet from the fabric switch; determining, by the second line card, if any egress endpoints of a service associated with the packet and that correspond to the second line card are ineligible to receive a duplicate packet of the replicated packet; and providing, by the second line card, the duplicate packet to each egress endpoint of the service that correspond to the second line card except any such egress endpoint determined to be ineligible to receive the duplicate packet.