Patent ID: 7796597

Claim:
A method for configuring rendezvous points at a plurality of routers in a network, said method comprising: entering rendezvous point commands into one of the routers, said rendezvous point commands identifying, for each of a plurality of multicast group ranges, which router is the rendezvous point for the multicast group range in the network; formulating a message in the one router that receives the rendezvous point commands, wherein the message identifies, for each of the plurality of multicast group ranges, which router is the rendezvous point for the multicast group range in the network as indicated by the entered rendezvous point commands; marking the message as special, wherein the marking indicates the message includes a static configuration of which routers are rendezvous points for the multicast group ranges; transmitting the message to the other routers in the network; and configuring the rendezvous points in the other routers.