System and method to multicast guaranteed and best-effort traffic in a communications network

Abstract

A system and method to multicast guaranteed and best-effort traffic in a communications network are disclosed. According to one embodiment, incoming traffic is separated into unicast traffic and multicast traffic. Each root cell of the multicast traffic is classified based on multiple corresponding classes of service. Each root cell is then stored into a root cell buffer of multiple root cell buffers within an egress memory, each root cell buffer being associated with a corresponding class of service. According to one embodiment, each root cell is retrieved from the corresponding root cell buffer within the egress memory according to the associated class of service. Each root cell is then stored in a corresponding replication queue of multiple replication queues based on its associated class of service, with predetermined replication parameters assigned to each replication queue. Each root cell is subsequently replicated according to one or more associated replication parameters to obtain multiple leaf cells for each replicated root cell. According to one embodiment, the unicast traffic is multiplexed with the replicated leaf cells of the multicast traffic to obtain egress arrival cells. Each egress arrival cell is then stored hierarchically into a queuing buffer of multiple queuing buffers within a queuing memory according to queuing parameters corresponding to each egress arrival cell.