Patent ID: 7272652

Claim:
A method for processing Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) messages, comprising: facilitating a response-mode determination process after receiving an IGMP Membership Report designating a requested multipoint leaf connection, comprising; determining whether a multicast stream designated in the IGMP Membership Report is already active; disregarding the IGMP Membership Report in response to determining that the multicast stream is active via a host designated in the IGMP Membership Report; and identifying the host designated in the IGMP Membership Report as an alternate host for the multicast stream designated in the IGMP Membership Report in response to determining that the multicast stream is active via a different host than the host designated in the IGMP Membership Report; performing a proactive expedited leave process in response to determining that implementation of the requested multipoint leaf connection is required and that required network resources are unavailable; and performing a multicast leaf connection implementation process for implementing the requested multipoint leaf connection in response to determining that required network resources are available.