Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 8
Claim 1
Independent Claim
177 words
A method for multicasting cells in a communications network, said communications network including a plurality of nodes coupled to one another by links, said method comprising the steps of dividing said communications network into a hierarchical arrangement of peer groups, wherein a peer group includes at least one of said nodes therein; building a multicast tree for a multicast group which includes all participant nodes, wherein a participant node is either a sender or receiver of data for said multicast group, said step of building including the steps of: selecting core nodes for each of said peer groups within said multicast group, wherein a node wanting to become part of said multicast group must register with said core node in its peer group; flooding core node information locally within each of said peer groups, wherein said nodes of a peer group need only maintain information about said core nodes of direct ancestor peer groups; and wherein said cells are able to be efficiently multicast by way of said multicast tree to said nodes in said muiticast group.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
67 words
The method of Claim 1, further including the step of: selecting a peer group leader for each of said peer groups in said network for aggregating topology information of nodes in said peer group and flooding said topology information in higher level peer groups, wherein a list of logical core nodes of ancestor peer groups is flooded in a peer group by each said peer group leader.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
52 words
The method of Claim 1, wherein a core node is active if a participant node is in the same peer group to which the core node belongs, and further including requiring all active core nodes of a specific multicast group to be part of said multicast tree for said specific multicast group.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
33 words
The method of Claim 3, further including requiring a core node to be part of said multicast tree if an intermediate non-participant node on the multicast tree belongs to that same peer group.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
31 words
The method of Claim 4, further including pruning a corresponding core node and corresponding intermediate nodes from said multicast tree if there is no participant node in the corresponding peer group.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
15 words
The method of Claim 2, wherein said topology information includes node and link state information.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
175 words
A shared communications network for multicasting cells, said communications network including a plurality of nodes coupled to one another by links, said network comprising: a hierarchical arrangement of peer groups making up said communications network, wherein a peer group includes at least one of said nodes therein; one or more multicast trees for a multicast group included within said hierarchical arrangement, which multicast trees includes all participant nodes, wherein a participant node is either a sender or receiver of data for said multicast group; a core node selected for each of said peer groups within said multicast group, wherein a node wanting to become part of said multicast group must register with said core node in its peer group, wherein core node information is flooded locally within each of said peer groups, and said nodes of a peer group need only maintain information about said core nodes of direct ancestor peer groups; and wherein said cells are able to be efficiently multicast by way of said multicast tree to said nodes in said multicast group.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
63 words
The network of Claim 7, further including: a peer group leader for each of said peer groups in said network for aggregating topology information of nodes in said peer group and flooding said topology information in higher level peer groups, wherein a list of logical core nodes of ancestor peer groups is flooded in a peer group by each said peer group leader.