Patent ID: 8369246

Claim:
A method for multicasting a multicast packet from a subscriber terminal in a network device in a communication network, wherein the communication network includes an access network and a local area network; when the communication network is an access network, the network device includes an access device through which the subscriber terminal sending the multicast packet is accessed to the network, the method comprising: generating a logical topology tree with the network device as a root node; generating a multicast tree on the logical topology tree with the network device as the root node, the generating the multicast tree including, receiving, by the network device, a report message on the logical topology tree on reception of the multicast packet, obtaining from the report message a multicast identification of the subscriber terminal for the multicast packet, and establishing a mapping relationship between a port configured to receive the report message and the multicast identification of the subscriber terminal to thereby generate the multicast tree; and forwarding the multicast packet on the multicast tree.