Patent ID: 6993024

Claim:
A method of multicasting a data packet from a single input to multiple outputs of a router system having a switching fabric, comprising: transferring the data packet to be multicast (multicast packet) from a router input to a dedicated multicast output card; transferring said multicast packet from said dedicated multicast output card to a dedicated multicast input card; storing said multicast packet on said dedicated multicast input card; and transferring said stored multicast packet from said dedicated multicast input card to said multiple outputs of said router system, wherein said multicast packet is replicated to produce a replica packet, wherein said switching fabric contains multiple inputs and said multiple outputs connected through multiple parallel switching paths, wherein multiple replica packets are transferred in parallel to said multiple outputs during a single cycle of said switching fabric, and wherein said multicast packet is sent through said switching fabric 1 + CEILING ( N m ) times wherein N is the quantity of said multiple outputs, wherein m is the quantity of said multiple parallel switching paths, and wherein the CEILING function rounds the value of a variable up to the next higher integer.