Patent ID: 8488616

Claim:
A method for creating a multipoint-to-multipoint tree, the method comprising: storing, by a first network router element, a first upstream forwarding state of a multipoint-to-multipoint tree, wherein the first upstream forwarding state comprises a first upstream label and one or more downstream labels, the first upstream label is associated with a first interface of the first network router element that is coupled to a downstream network router element, the one or more downstream labels are each associated with a respective interface of one or more respective interfaces of the first network router element, the one or more respective interfaces do not comprise the first interface, each respective interface is coupled to a respective downstream network router element, upstream is toward a root network router element of the multipoint-to-multipoint tree, downstream is away from the root network router element of the multipoint-to-multipoint tree, and the multipoint-to-multipoint tree comprises a single label switched path supporting bidirectional communication on the single label switched path.