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:
Jul. 03, 2012
Filed:
Feb. 12, 2009
Rajesh I Balay, San Jose, CA (US);
Girish Bhat, San Diego, CA (US);
Gregory Lockwood, Redwood City, CA (US);
Rama Krishnan Nagarajan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Rajesh I Balay, San Jose, CA (US);
Girish Bhat, San Diego, CA (US);
Gregory Lockwood, Redwood City, CA (US);
Rama Krishnan Nagarajan, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Fortinet, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Abstract
Methods and apparatus are provided for managing multicast Internet Protocol (IP) flows. According to one embodiment, a multicast IP flow is identified at an interface of a network device using information from a packet header. For any newly identified multicast IP flow, if flow-specific services are required, a new first transmit control block (TCB), which includes one or more attributes relating to flow-specific services required by the newly identified multicast IP flow, is created for the newly identified multicast IP flow. Otherwise, if flow-specific services are not required by the newly identified multicast IP flow, a default second TCB, which excludes any attributes relating to flow-specific services and which includes one or more attributes related to a virtual interface (VI) serving as an outbound interface (OIF) for the newly identified multicast IP flow, is used.