Patent ID: 8599851

Claim:
A system that routes one or more flows within a network that provides multicast flow transport for one or more groups, comprising: one or more transit routers comprising one or more processing units that run one or more overlay processes associated with parallel overlay networks that route one or more flows based on overlay group identifiers; one or more access nodes issuing requests for one or more overlay groups in order to receive flows from said one or more transit routers, said one or more access nodes and said transit routers together being on a network that supports native multicast service, wherein the overlay processes utilize a mapping service that maps overlay group identifiers to native multicast group identifiers; a communication system that shares mapping information between at least two overlay processes that maintain at least two parallel overlay networks; and a control channel between said one or more access nodes and said one or more transit routers, wherein said one or more access nodes request one or more overlay group identifiers and said one or more transit routers transmit one or more native multicast group identifiers via said control channel.