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:
Mar. 29, 2005
Filed:
Jul. 30, 1999
C. Kenneth Miller, Concord, MA (US);
Thomas Andresen, Westboro, MA (US);
Thomas Gardner, Grafton, MA (US);
Craig Michelson, Brighton, MA (US);
Kenneth Cates, Salem, NH (US);
Marc White, Wayland, MA (US);
Kary Robertson, Newburyport, MA (US);
C. Kenneth Miller, Concord, MA (US);
Thomas Andresen, Westboro, MA (US);
Thomas Gardner, Grafton, MA (US);
Craig Michelson, Brighton, MA (US);
Kenneth Cates, Salem, NH (US);
Marc White, Wayland, MA (US);
Kary Robertson, Newburyport, MA (US);
The Fantastic Corporation, Zug, CH;
Abstract
The benefits of a multicast-enabled network are realized by a flexible, easy to deploy, software-based solution that does not require reconfiguring of network routers. Systems and methods that implement this solution can perform as follows. A packet is received that was sent by a sender to at least one receiver, and the packet includes a parameter relating to a multicast announce address. A forwarding rules set is associated with the packet if the parameter has a defined value. This forwarding rules set is used to determine whether any of the at least one destination addresses included in the packet corresponds to one of the receivers that has a receiver format that must be converted. In addition, the forwarding rules set defines when a packet should be converted from a sender format to a receiver format before forwarding the packet. The packet is converted from the sender format to the receiver format for each destination address identified as requiring conversion, and forwarded in accordance with the forwarding rules set.