Patent ID: 8824483

Claim:
A method of forwarding a multicast data frame in a distributed switch, comprising: receiving the multicast data frame at an ingress switch in the distributed switch, wherein a multicast group membership associated with the multicast data frame specifies at least two destination switches in the distributed switch, wherein each destination switch comprises an egress port; generating a hash key based on header information in the multicast data frame; forwarding at least a portion of the multicast data frame and the hash key to the at least two destination switches by routing the portion to one or more surrogate switches in a hierarchy, wherein the at least two destination switches are assigned to the one or more surrogate switches in the hierarchy; receiving the portion and the hash key at the at least two destination switches via the one or more surrogate switches; identifying an enabled egress port on each of the at least two destination switches based on respective local port masks, wherein the enabled egress ports form an aggregated link; and after receiving the portion and the hash key, selecting only one of the enabled egress ports to forward the portion on the aggregated link based on the received hash key and a trunk ID associated with at least one the enabled egress ports, wherein each destination switch comprising one of the enabled egress ports not selected to transmit the portion discards the portion.