Patent ID: 7768913

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving a unicast request message sent from a requesting device to a source of multicast packets with a network device that is intermediate to the requesting device and the source of multicast packets, wherein the unicast request message includes as a destination address an address associated with the source of multicast packets; determining whether an intercept alert bit of at least one packet of the unicast request message is set, wherein the intercept alert bit provides an indication that a device different from the source of the multicast packets is to intercept the unicast request message addressed to the source device; intercepting and inspecting the unicast request message with an intermediate device when the intercept alert bit is set; determining that the unicast request message includes an indication that indicates that the requesting device requests delivery of multicast packets as unicast packets; and delivering, with the intermediate device, multicast packets received from the source of multicast packets to the requesting device as unicast packets based on the determination that the unicast request message includes the indication, wherein the intermediate device is unknown to the requesting device at a time when the intercept alert bit is set.