Patent ID: 8576702

Claim:
A method for receiving a multicast stream, comprising: receiving at a non-designated router a multicast stream sent concurrently from the same source to a designated router and the non-designated router, where the designated router is responsible for sending the multicast stream to a host, where the multicast stream is broadcasted to a multicast internet protocol (IP) address on the network, where the non-designated router and the designated router receive the multicast stream by subscribing to the multicast IP address; determining at the non-designated router whether the designated router has failed; electing the non-designated router as an elected designated router and sending the received multicast stream to the host from the elected designated router, if it is determined that the designated router has failed, wherein the non-designated router has been elected as the elected designated router from among a plurality of non-designated routers at least in part due to a priority identifier value assigned to the elected designated router and wherein the value is based at least in part on whether the elected designated router has subscribed to the multicast IP address; and refraining from sending the received multicast stream to the host and discarding the received multicast stream from the non-designated router, if it is determined that the designated router has not failed.