Patent ID: 8681681

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a device, single stream multicast data; storing, by the device, a single instance of the single stream multicast data in a particular queue of a plurality of queues; storing, by the device, a multicast count associated with the single stream multicast data in the particular queue, the multicast count corresponding to a quantity of destinations to which the single stream multicast data is to be sent; examining, by the device, the multicast count associated with the single stream multicast data when the single stream multicast data reaches a head of the particular queue; dequeuing, by the device, a copy of the single stream multicast data and decrementing the multicast count when the multicast count is greater than one; dequeuing, by the device, the single stream multicast data based on the multicast count when the multicast count equals one: allocating, by the device, a particular amount of bandwidth to each queue of the plurality of queues; determining, by the device, an instantaneous amount of the allocated bandwidth used by each queue of the plurality of queues; determining, by the device, an average amount of the allocated bandwidth used by each queue of the plurality of queues; and determining, by the device, bandwidth use by each of the queues based on the instantaneous bandwidth used and the average bandwidth used by each queue of the plurality of queues.