摘要 |
A method is provided for distributing multicast channels from a multicast/predictive multicast cache located in at least one selected network device of a multicast network. The network device upon receiving a channel request from an end-user transmits the requested channel from the multicast cache if the requested channel is available in the multicast cache. Else, the network device requests the multicast source for the requested channel along with a group of one or more multicast channels centered at the requested channel. The network device transmits only the requested channel and other channels are cached in the multicast cache on the network device. Upon receiving a request for removing a channel the network device caches the channel for a prescribed duration before evicting the channel.
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