INTELLIGENT NETWORK CONTROLLED MULTICAST

摘要

According to the present invention a method and an apparatus in a packet-switched network for supplying data packets to receivers (4a-c) belonging to a multicast group are disclosed. The apparatus comprises a routing means (2) for receiving data packets from a sender (1) and for buffering data packets the destination address of which is a multicast address of a multicast group. The apparatus further comprises a control means (3) communicating with the routing means (2) for determining the addresses of the receivers (4a-c) of the multicast group indicated by the multicast address and receiver-specific parameters, for designating filters for each receiver (4a-c) and/or each determined receiver address in accordance with the receiver-specific parameters and for supplying the determined addresses and designated filters to the routing means (2). The routing means (2) filters the multicast data packets and/or the determined addresses with the designated filters for each receiver (4a-c) of the multicast group and supplies the filtered multicast data packets to the filtered receiver addresses.