METHOD FOR MANAGING MULTICAST TRAFFIC IN A DATA NETWORK AND NETWORK EQUIPMENT USING SAID METHOD

• US 20100183008A1
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Published: 07/22/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Media Patents S.L.
• Original Assignee: Media Patents S.L.
• Inventors: Fernández Gutierrez, Alvaro
• Granted Patent: US 8,184,630 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/18 for broadcast or conference , e.g. multicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/66 Arrangements for connecting between networks having differing types of switching systems, e.g. gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/1458 Denial of Service

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for managing multicast traffic in a data network, and network equipment using said method. Hosts (1, 2, 3, 4a, 4b, 4c) receive from a network interface of a router (9) traffic sent by sources (12, 13) in a multicast group. The hosts and the router communicate with one another by means of a multicast host-router communications protocol by means of which the hosts send to the router messages to request multicast traffic from sources in a multicast group. The router (9) receiving one of said messages obtains in said message identifying data which identify the host that has sent said message, and said router (9) stores in specific records for each network interface of the router, host and multicast group information about the sources the traffic of which has been requested by said host in said messages sent to the router (9).

Claims

1-16. -16. (canceled)

17. Equipment having one or more downstream interfaces and situated in a data network system between sources that send multicast data packets to at least one multicast group address and multiple hosts that request data from the multicast group address and sources, the equipment storing for each network interface, each multicast group address and each host at least one record derived from one or more data requests made by the hosts which includes multicast group address and source address information.

18. Equipment according to claim 17 wherein the equipment is a router situated in the data network closest to the hosts.

19. A router according to claim 18 wherein the one or more records are state records.

20. Equipment according to claim 17 wherein the equipment is an IGMP proxy that communicates with the hosts via a communications protocol based on a version of the IGMP or the MLD protocol.

21. An IGMP proxy according to claim 20 wherein the proxy is a multiplexer.

22. An IGMP proxy according to claim 20 wherein the proxy is a CPE (Customer-Premises Equipment)

23. Equipment according to claim 17 wherein the equipment communicates with the hosts via a communications protocol based on the IGMP or the MLD protocol.

24. Equipment according to claim 17 wherein the equipment communicates with the hosts via a modified IGMPv3 or a modified MLDv2 protocol.

25. A router according to claim 18 wherein the router uses a version of the PIM protocol to request the multicast data sent by the sources.

26. A router according to claim 18 wherein the router communicates with the hosts via a communications protocol based on the IGMP or the MLD protocol and wherein the router uses a version of the PIM protocol to request the multicast data sent by the sources.

27. A router according to claim 18 wherein the data request of a host separately contains INCLUDE filter mode source lists of a multicast group address, indicating that a host wishes to receive data sent by the INCLUDE sources and EXCLUDE filter mode source lists of a multicast group address, indicating that the host wishes to receive data sent by all the sources of the multicast group except the EXCLUDE sources.

28. A router according to claim 18 wherein the record comprises at least {interface, multicast-address, hostID, filter mode, (source-address, source-timer)}, where interface indicates the network interface of the router through which the router has received the data request, multi-cast address is the multicast group address, hostID is an identifier of the host that has sent the request, filter mode can be INCLUDE or EXCLUDE and (source-address, source-timer) is a list of elements where source-address comprises the source IP address and where source-timer comprises a timer associated with the source.

29. Equipment according to claim 17 wherein the equipment stores executable instructions for (1) obtaining from the data request host identity data which identify the host that has sent the request, and (2) storing in the records for each network interface, each multicast group address and each host information about the sources the data of which has been requested and the host identity data.

30. A router according to claim 18 wherein the router stores executable instructions for (1) analyzing the data requests originating from the hosts to request multicast data from sources in a multicast group address and, (2) updating accordingly the information contained in the records for the hosts if the request is a change of state message informing about a variation of the sources from which a host wishes to receive data and, (3) adjusting the multicast data transmission based on the information contained in the records for the different hosts which have requested multicast data without requesting confirmation from the hosts.

31. Equipment according to claim 29 wherein the equipment stores executable instructions for reading in a request originating from a host that has sent the request the IP (Internet Protocol) address of origin of the IP datagram containing the request, and storing the IP address as the identity data of the host.

32. Equipment according to claim 29 wherein the equipment stores executable instructions for reading in a request originating from a host the MAC (Media Access Control) address of the data frame that carries the IP (Internet Protocol) datagram containing the request, and storing the MAC address as the identity data of the host.

33. A router according to claim 18 wherein the router stores executable instructions for analyzing the information contained in the records and, based on the information, limiting the multicast data the router transmits to one or more of the hosts.

34. A router according to claim 18 wherein the router stores executable instructions for analyzing the information contained in the records and, based on the information, adjusting the multicast bandwidth which the router has available for distributing among the various hosts.

35. A router according to claim 18 wherein the router stores executable instructions for limiting the amount of multicast data a single host can request from a multicast group address and/or source.

36. A router according to claim 18 wherein the router stores executable instructions for receiving the requests originating from a host and storing for each network interface and multicast group address INCLUDE source data and EXCLUDE source data when the requests contain such data.