摘要 |
A method is provided to reduce multicast traffic by snooping IGMP control packets on a packet-forwarding device. A multicast traffic reducer includes an IGMP proxy, which operates in conjunction with an IGMP snooper to intercept selected IGMP control packets and generate proxy IGMP control packets in their place. The IGMP proxy may include an IGMP query batcher to consolidate IGMP queries to multicast host groups, an IGMP query responder to consolidate host responses to the IGMP queries to multicast host groups, and/or an IGMP leave forwarder to manage host IGMP leave packets. The IGMP proxy consolidates or discards host-generated IGMP control packets and timely generates IGMP proxy control packets in their place. The IGMP proxy further includes an IGMP layer- 2 query generator to initiate IGMP queries for a layer- 2 router multicast application.
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