Patent ID: 8537816

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for multicast data communication, the computer-implemented method comprising: examining control information of a multicast data packet received at a first data switching device, the multicast data packet including control information and a payload, the multicast data packet received as part of a virtual private network (VPN); identifying remotely attached data switching devices to which to forward the multicast data packet based on the control information, the remotely attached data switching devices being logically connected to the first data switching device via a service provider network, wherein identifying remotely attached data switching devices to which to forward the multicast data packet based on the control information includes identifying remotely attached virtual route forwarders; replicating the multicast data packet for each identified remotely attached data switching device; encapsulating each replicated multicast data packet with outer header information, the outer header information identifying each replicated multicast data packet as a unicast data packet; forwarding each encapsulated and replicated multicast data packet to a corresponding remotely attached data switching device via a logical unicast tunnel of the service provider network; exchanging VPN routing information with remotely attached switching devices using Multi-Protocol extensions to Border Gateway Protocol (MP-BGP), each data switching device having one or more virtual route forwarders; and enabling a multicast routing protocol in each virtual route forwarder.