Janet Doong - Chelmsford MA, US Richard Crump - Boston MA, US Michael Kinzlmaier - Acton MA, US
Assignee:
Nortel Networks Limited
International Classification:
H04L 12/28 H04L 12/26
US Classification:
370390, 370252, 370432
Abstract:
A multicast network device, such as a router, may support a plurality of multicast routing protocols. Each multicast routing protocol maintains its own routing table that stores the multicast routes known to the multicast routing protocol. A unicast routing table may also be included in the network device. Some multicast protocols make us of unicast as well as multicast routes. A single multicast routing table is provided to store the multicast routes for each multicast routing protocol and a selected set of unicast routes form the unicast routing table. Multicast routing table management logic controls the content of the multicast routing table. The single multicast routing table allows for efficient access to the multicast and unicast routes as well as for the exchange of routing information between different multicast routing protocols.