Patent ID: 7529241

Claim:
A method for providing a network bridge for UDP multicast traffic, the method being implemented by a multicast repeater on a host computer system on a network, the method comprising: maintaining information on a host computer system on a network about one or more other multicast repeaters that have been discovered, each multicast repeater being located on a separate network that is separated from the network comprising the host by at least one networking device that is not configured to route UDP multicast addressing; and each time that a UDP multicast request packet is received via multicast: determining whether the multicast repeater has previously forwarded the UDP multicast request packet; if the multicast repeater has previously forwarded the UDP multicast request packet, ignoring the UDP multicast request packet; and if the multicast repeater has not previously forwarded the UDP multicast request packet, sending the UDP multicast request packet to the one or more other multicast repeaters that have been discovered.