Patent ID: 8855115

Claim:
A method for routing a multicast message comprising the steps of assigning randomly a probability number for the multicast message; receiving at a node, a multicast message including at least a message, a source identifier, a sequence number, a time-to-live value and a multicast group destination; determining if the multicast group destination is in a multicast forwarding table; discarding the multicast message if the multicast group destination is not in the multicast forwarding table; determining in a multicast packet cache table if the multicast message has been previously received; adding the multicast message to the multicast packet cache table if it is determined that the message has not been previously received; determining if the node that received the multicast message is a multicast receiving node or a forwarding node; if the node is determined to be a multicast receiving node: comparing the randomly assigned probability number with a preset probability threshold value associated with the multicast receiving node, and forwarding the multicast message if the randomly assigned probability number is less than the preset probability threshold, and discarding the multicast message if the randomly assigned probability number is greater than or equal to the preset probability threshold.