SCALABLE IP-SERVICES ENABLED MULTICAST FORWARDING WITH EFFICIENT RESOURCE UTILIZATION

摘要

Methods, apparatus and data structures are provided for managing multicast IP flows. According to one embodiment, active multicast IP sessions are identified by a router. A data structure is maintained by the router and contains therein information regarding the multicast sessions, including a first pointer for each of the multicast sessions, at least one chain of one or more blocks of second pointers and one or more transmit control blocks (TCBs). Each first pointer points to a chain of one or more blocks of second pointers. Each second pointer corresponds to an outbound interface (OIF) participating in the multicast session and identifies a number of times packets associated with the multicast session are to be replicated. The TCBs have stored therein control information to process or route packets. Each second pointer points to a TCB that identifies an OIF of the router through which packets are to be transmitted.