APPARATUS AND METHOD OF FILTERING MULTICAST STREAM IN ETHERNET SWITCH

摘要

A method and an apparatus for filtering a multicast stream in an Ethernet switch are provided to prevent unnecessary flooding of the multicast stream, thereby achieving efficient and smooth data flow of the switch and significantly reducing loads of a processor port. A method for filtering a multicast stream comprises the following steps of: registering a disjoined destination address in an MAC(Media Access Control) table of an Ether switch or in a multicast table managed by a processor connected to the Ether switch(S410,S420); setting an age to the destination address registered in the multicast table, and changing the age according to elapsed time(S430,S440); changing a state for the destination address in the MAC table if the age becomes a first value(S460); and deleting the destination address from the MAC table and the multicast table if the age becomes a second value.