Patent ID: 8433900

Claim:
A method comprising: transmitting, by a first network device to a second network device, a request to join a multicast group, the request being transmitted via a unicast tunnel established, prior to transmitting the request, between the first network device and the second network device; receiving, by the first network device, group keys based on transmitting the request via the unicast tunnel, the group keys being based on the multicast group; establishing, by the first network device, another tunnel between the first network device and the second network device, the other tunnel being different than the unicast tunnel; receiving, by the first network device and from the second network device, an encapsulated packet via the other tunnel; processing, by the first network device using the group keys, the encapsulated packet to obtain a multicast packet; and forwarding, by the first network device, the multicast packet to at least one multicast recipient.