Patent Document ID: 8743875
Application ID: 13242250
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method for packet switching in a Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) network, the computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a first control message at a first data switching device, the first data switching device functioning as a Backbone Core Bridge within a transport network using Shortest Path Bridging protocol, the first control message being an Intermediate System To Intermediate System (IS-IS) Layer 2 control message having a type-length-value (TLV) structure, the first control message originating from a second data switching device, the second data switching device functioning as a Backbone Edge Bridge within the transport network, the first control message indicating that the second data switching device is a transmitter node for a multicast data stream, the multicast data stream identified using a service instance identifier (I-SID); updating a link state database used by the first data switching device such that the link state database indicates that the second data switching device is the transmitter node for the first I-SID; receiving a second control message at the first data switching device, the second control message originating from a third data switching device, the third data switching device functioning as a Backbone Edge Bridge within the transport network, the second control message indicating that the third data switching device is a receiver node for the multicast data stream identified using both the I-SID and a nickname of the second data switching device; in response to identifying that a combination of the I-SID and the nickname for the second data switching device matches a record in the link state database, building a forwarding table used by the first data switching device such that data packets indicating the I-SID and also indicating the second data switching device as the transmitter node are routed to the third data switching device wherein building a forwarding table used by the first data switching device includes refraining from creating forwarding entries for I-SIDs that are not linked to a specific nickname of a data switching device; and forwarding data packets corresponding to the multicast data according to the forwarding table.