Patent ID: 8867355

Claim:
A method for transmitting information over a home coax network, the method for adding a multicast transmission mode to a system that previously only had unicast transmission mode and broadcast transmission mode, the method comprising: mapping, by an ingress node that is distinct from a network controller that coordinates transmissions over the home coax network, a multicast address associated with multicast traffic to a destination identifier associated with a multicast group, wherein the destination identifier is distinct from the multicast address; transmitting the multicast traffic with the destination identifier, the multicast traffic being directed to the multicast group, by the ingress node to a plurality of egress nodes, wherein a first portion of the plurality of egress nodes are registered as members to the multicast group and a second portion of the plurality of egress nodes are not registered as the members to the multicast group; upon receipt by an egress node of the plurality of egress nodes of the multicast traffic, determining, by the egress node, whether to process and store the multicast traffic based at least on whether the egress node is a member of the multicast group that is associated with the destination identifier of the multicast traffic; and when the egress node transitions to a standby mode, the egress node is configured to receive a flow of broadcast traffic and a flow of unicast traffic, and to not receive a flow of multicast traffic.