Patent ID: 7554928

Claim:
A method comprising: determining by a processor a first wasted bandwidth due to combining a first destination address with a second destination address, wherein the first destination address corresponds to a first multicast group address, the second destination address corresponds to a second multicast group address, and the first wasted bandwidth comprises a first weighting factor proportional to a rate at which data packets are transmitted to the second multicast group address; determining by a processor a second wasted bandwidth due to combining the first destination address with a third destination address, wherein the third destination address corresponds to a third multicast group address, and the second wasted bandwidth comprises a second weighting factor proportional to a rate at which data packets are transmitted to the third multicast group address; and combining the first destination address and the second destination address if the first wasted bandwidth is less than the second wasted bandwidth, or combining the first destination address and the third destination address if the first wasted bandwidth is more than the second wasted bandwidth.