MULTICAST ROUTING TABEL MANAGEMENT METHOD AND MULTICAST PACKET PROCESSING METHOD IN LARGE EDGE ROUTER

摘要

A method for managing a multicast table in a large edge router and a method for processing a multicast packet are provided to efficiently use and manage network resources by transferring multicast data only to a physical port connected to a host, which has requested the multicast data actually, even though many physical ports are connected with an identical VLAN interface, in case the large edge router uses both a VLAN function and a multicast function at the same time. A large edge router, if an IGMP(Internet Group Management Protocol) packet is received from a host, judges whether the received IGMP packet indicates a multicast group registration request or a multicast group release request. The edge router obtains an associated entry from an MRT(Multicast Routing Table) by using a multicast group address contained in the IGMP packet as a key. The edge router updates the obtained entry with the interface, which received the IGMP packet, according to the multicast group registration request or the multicast group release request.