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:
Nov. 13, 2007
Filed:
Sep. 11, 2003
Jeremy N. Shapiro, Brighton, MA (US);
Stephen A. Jay, Chelmsford, MA (US);
Jeremy N. Shapiro, Brighton, MA (US);
Stephen A. Jay, Chelmsford, MA (US);
Sun Microsystems, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
A system and method for efficiently managing membership in a multicast communication group. The system may comprise any number of end nodes (e.g., channel adapters, network interface adapters) and routing nodes (e.g., switches), and the method may be implemented by a processor coupled to any node. Each node in a network may be a member of the multicast group and/or the multicast tree (MCT) that routes the group's multicast communications. A node need not be a member of the group to be a member of the tree. Network links included in the multicast tree (MCT) are a subset of a network minimum spanning tree (MST). When a node is added to the group, the minimum spanning tree (MST) is searched from that node until a node within the multicast tree (MCT) is found. Each time a member is removed from the group, the multicast tree (MCT) is pruned to reduce unneeded communications.