Patent ID: 7685308

Claim:
A method for transmitting data to a multicast group, including a plurality of receivers and one or more destination routers, by using an X-cast mode, the method comprising: transmitting an X-cast IP data packet, having an X-cast header including addresses of each destination router including in the multicast group, to a destination router of the multicast group, wherein the destination router is connected to one or more of the receivers of the multicast group and stores an allocated address of the multicast group within an internal memory of the destination router, and the destination router is directly coupled to each destination router included in the multicast group; and converting the X-cast IP data packet into a second multicast IP data packet, having an IP header including the address of the multicast group, and transmitting the second multicast IP data packet to each receiver coupled to the destination router, wherein only the receivers of the multicast group can receive the second multicast IP data packet; and wherein a source router stores the addresses of the multicast group and the destination router corresponding to the multicast proud into a memory and converts a first multicast IP data racket into the X-cast IP data racket if an address of the multicast group included in an IP header of the first multicast IP data racket is equal to one of the addresses of the multicast groups stored in the memory.