Patent ID: 8761044

Claim:
A method comprising: routing, by a network device, multicast traffic, the multicast traffic being routed to multicast groups using protocol independent multicast (PIM); receiving, by the network device, a source-specific PIM join message, the source-specific PIM join message indicating that a device is to receive traffic from a multicast source associated with one of the multicast groups; determining, by the network device, whether the network device is a designated network device or a non-designated network device for a subnet of the multicast source; determining, by the network device and based on routing information associated with the multicast source, whether the network device is one hop away from the subnet of the multicast source; and forwarding, by the network device and when the network device is the non-designated network device and is one hop away from the subnet of the multicast source, the source-specific PIM join message towards the subnet of the multicast source, the source-specific PIM join message not being transmitted when the network device is the designated network device and is one hop away from the subnet of the multicast source.