Source Specific Multicast Group to Source Mapping

• US 20110176545A1
• Filed: 03/29/2011
• Published: 07/21/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Arjen Boers, Ijsbrand Wijnands
• Original Assignee: Arjen Boers, Ijsbrand Wijnands
• Inventors: Boers, Arjen, Wijnands, Ijsbrand
• Granted Patent: US 8,611,348 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/390
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1886 with traffic restrictions for efficiency improvement, e.g. involving subnets or subdomains
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/00 Network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/10 of different types

Abstract

A system and method of generating a channel address. The method includes mapping a first address, obtained from a membership report, to a second address to generate a channel address. A multicast network device (MND) for subscribing one or more hosts on a multicast network to one or more channels is disclosed. The MND includes a memory containing a first address and a SSM mapping engine configured to map the first address to a second address to generate a channel address, identifying a channel, in response to the first address contained in the memory.

Claims

1. A method performed by a router comprising:

in response to the router receiving a first membership report, accessing a memory that maps multicast group addresses to source addresses in order to read a first source address that is mapped to a first multicast group address;

in response to accessing the memory, the router generating a protocol independent multicast (PIM) join, wherein the PIM join comprises the first multicast group address and the first source address that was read from the memory;

sending the PIM join toward a host corresponding to the first source address; and

receiving data packets comprising the first source address and the first multicast group address;

wherein the first membership report comprises the first multicast group address, but not the first source address.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first membership report is an IGMP membership report.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the first membership report is an IGMP version 1 membership report or an IGMP version 2 membership report.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory is a database of a Domain Name Server (DNS) database or a local Source Specific Multicast (SSM) mapping database.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

the router receiving the first membership report from a host seeking to join a multicast group.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

in response to the router receiving a second membership report, accessing the memory in order to read a second source address that is mapped to a second multicast group address;

in response to accessing the memory, the router generating a second protocol independent multicast (PIM) join, wherein the second PIM join comprises the second multicast group address and the second source address that was read from the memory;

sending the second PIM join toward a second host corresponding to the second source address; and

receiving data packets comprising the second source address and the second multicast group address;

wherein the second membership report comprises the second multicast group address, but not the second source address.

7. A router comprising:

a first circuit for accessing a memory that maps multicast group addresses to source addresses in order to read a first source address that is mapped to a first multicast group in response to the router receiving a first group membership report that comprises the first multicast group address but not the first source address;

a second circuit for generating a protocol independent multicast (PIM) join, wherein the PIM join comprises the first multicast group address and the first source address that was read from the memory;

wherein the second circuit is configured to send the PIM join towards a host corresponding to the first source address.

8. The router of claim 7, wherein the first membership report is an IGMP membership report.

9. The router of claim 8, wherein the first membership report is an IGMP version 1 membership report or an IGMP version 2 membership report.

10. The router of claim 7, wherein the memory is a database of a Domain Name Server (DNS) database or a local Source Specific Multicast (SSM) mapping database.

11. The router of claim 7, further comprising the router comprising an input for receiving the first membership report from a host seeking to join a multicast group.

12. A system comprising:

a first router coupled to a second router;

the first router comprising first, second, and third modules;

wherein the first module is configured for, in response to first the router receiving a first membership report, accessing a memory that maps multicast group addresses to source addresses in order to read a first source address that is mapped to a first multicast group address;

wherein the second module is configured for generating a protocol independent multicast (PIM) join, wherein the PIM join comprises the first multicast group address and the first source address that was read from the memory;

wherein the third module is configured for sending the PIM join to the second router;

wherein the first membership report comprises the first multicast group address, but not the first source address.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first membership report is an IGMP membership report.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first membership report is an IGMP version 1 membership report or an IGMP version 2 membership report.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the memory is a database of a Domain Name Server (DNS) database or a local Source Specific Multicast (SSM) mapping database.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the first router further comprises:

an input for receiving the first membership report from a host seeking to join a multicast group.