Patent ID: 7724739

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, at a network processing device, a multicast packet from a content supplier over a network, where the multicast packet includes a source address identifying the content supplier of the multicast packet and includes a multicast group address identifying a multicast group associated with the multicast packet; identifying, with the network processing device, one or more recipient devices subscribed to the multicast group identified by the multicast group address; receiving, at the network processing device, a multicast group indicator from at least one recipient device subscribed to the multicast group, the multicast group indicator to identify one or more content suppliers for the multicast group and to indicate the at least one recipient device does not wish to receive multicast traffic from the identified content suppliers; comparing, with the network processing device, the source address in the multicast packet with the multicast group indicator to determine whether the recipient device associated with the multicast group is to receive the multicast packet from the content supplier identified in the source address; forwarding, with the network processing device, the multicast packet to at least one output port associated with the recipient device when the multicast group indicator indicates the recipient device wishes to receive multicast traffic from the content supplier of the multicast packet; and blocking, with the network processing device, the multicast packet from the at least one output port associated with the recipient device when the multicast group indicator indicates the recipient device does not wish to receive multicast traffic from the content supplier of the multicast packet.