MULTICAST EXTENSION TO DATA LINK LAYER PROTOCOLS

摘要

A data link layer switch (100) includes a switching mechanism (110) coupled to several port interface controllers (120). The port interface controllers (120) include an address table, an address learner (220), and an address matcher (240). The address table stores multicast addresses for hosts attached to the port interface controller (120). The address learner (220) compares a destination address in an incoming packet to a target address, and stores a multicast address from the incoming packet in the address table (230) when the destination address matches the target address. The address matcher (240) compares a destination address in an outgoing packet to the multicast addresses stored in the address table (230), and transmits the outgoing packet when the destination address matches one of the multicast addresses.