The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 18, 2001
Filed:
May. 06, 1997
William T. Haggerty, Dunstable, MA (US);
Phillip Andlauer, Londonderry, NH (US);
Stephen H. Negus, Windham, NH (US);
Enterasys Networks, Inc., Rochester, NH (US);
Abstract
Method and apparatus for establishing connections in a switch-based communications network for multicast traffic. A source receives a multicast packet on an access port from a source host, determines a group address in the multicast packet, and composes and sends a “sender present” message to other switches on its network ports. The receiving switches determine whether a local host wishes to join the group and if so, send a map message back toward the source switch on a predetermined path between the receiving switch and the source switch. A map message may terminate at a switch on the path that already has a connection for this group/source pair, and join into this connection as an additional output port. In this manner, a “signal out, connect back” method is provided for establishing a connection path from the sender to multiple receivers. In addition, multicast traffic can be sent across a switch/router interface in either direction, providing for controlled multicast traffic between router-based networks and switch-based networks.