Control and maintenance of multicast distribution employing embedded displays

Abstract

A method and system for providing multilevel information about multicast distribution. The method comprises the steps of generating a display, on a computer display screen, of a tree having a plurality of nodes, and embedding in the nodes information about the multicast distribution. The tree may display information about one or more of a variety of aspects of the multicast distribution. These aspects include display of the members of each of a plurality of particular multicast groups, group and/or member connectivity, group parameters, group statistics control, monitor and maintenance; acknowledge and/or operational status, etc. As a specific example, the nodes may represent capacities of a defined aspect. Displays may allow users having particular privileges to add, delete and/or modify nodes. Geometric shapes, having geometric aspects, may be used to represent the nodes; and the aspects of these shapes may be used to represent predetermined aspect of the multicast distribution. Also, a controller may be used to perform certain aspects of the multicast distribution, and information about these aspects of the multicast distribution may be embedded in the nodes.