Patent ID: 8625406

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a processor included in a first node, a multicast packet to route to a second node that is a next multicast hop along a multicast path; determining, by the processor, that the second node is not available; selecting, by the processor and based on determining that the second node is not available, third nodes, wherein selecting the third nodes includes: identifying adjacent neighbor nodes that are neighbor hops of the second node, determining a particular node, of the adjacent neighbor nodes, that received the multicast packet prior to the multicast packet being received by the first node, and selecting the third nodes from the adjacent neighbor nodes, the particular node being excluded from the third nodes; performing, by the processor, unicast encapsulation to the multicast packet to generate a unicast-encapsulated multicast packet, the unicast-encapsulated multicast packet including unicast information that identifies respective addresses of the third nodes; and sending, by the processor and based on the unicast information, the unicast-encapsulated multicast packet to the third nodes as one or more unicast transmissions via one or more unicast transmission paths that differ from the multicast path.