A routing system for distributing multicast routing information for a multicast service includes a plurality of routers including a multicast source router and a plurality of multicast receiver routers, the plurality of routers providing a multicast service, wherein the routers are configured to exchange multicast information associated with the multicast service including identification of multicast sources and the multicast receivers.

In one embodiment, a method includes receiving a broadcast, unknown-unicast, or multicast (BUM) frame from a connected device, where the BUM frame is associated with a broadcast domain, determining a segment within the broadcast domain associated with the device, adding to the BUM frame a segment identifier that uniquely identifies the segment within the broadcast domain, and causing the BUM frame to be delivered to one or more recipient network apparatuses in a network associated with the broadcast domain, where the segment identifier added to the BUM frame is configured to be used by the one or more recipient network apparatuses to selectively forward the BUM frame to connected devices that are associated with segment identifier.

A router node may be configured for communication of multicast traffic in a network fabric which may include a plurality of spine nodes interconnected to a plurality of leaf nodes. The router node may be configured as one of the leaf nodes and serve as a first hop router for multicast traffic. At the router node, a message for flooding the network fabric may be sent based on an indication of communication of multicast traffic for a multicast group from a source device. The message may include at least one spine node identifier of at least one preferred spine node joined to the multicast group at the router node. The message may be for indicating, to at least one of the leaf nodes, to prioritize joining to the multicast group at the at least one preferred spine node according to at least one spine node identifier.

A router node may be configured for communication of multicast traffic in a network fabric which may include a plurality of spine nodes interconnected to a plurality of leaf nodes. The router node may be configured as one of the leaf nodes and serve as a first hop router for multicast traffic. At the router node, a message for flooding the network fabric may be sent based on an indication of communication of multicast traffic for a multicast group from a source device. The message may include at least one spine node identifier of at least one preferred spine node joined to the multicast group at the router node. The message may be for indicating, to at least one of the leaf nodes, to prioritize joining to the multicast group at the at least one preferred spine node according to at least one spine node identifier.

Various example embodiments for supporting candidate path selection in a communication system are presented. The support for candidate path selection may be based on candidate path preference information of the candidate paths where the candidate path preference information of the candidate paths may be configured for use by network devices in selecting between the candidate paths. The support for candidate path selection based on candidate path preference information of the candidate paths may be provided within the context of candidate path selection which may include failover switching. The support for candidate path selection based on candidate path preference information may be based on support for distribution of the candidate path preference information of the candidate paths to network devices and use of the candidate path preference information of the candidate paths by the network devices to support selection of the candidate paths.

Various example embodiments for supporting candidate path selection in a communication system are presented. The support for candidate path selection may be based on candidate path preference information of the candidate paths where the candidate path preference information of the candidate paths may be configured for use by network devices in selecting between the candidate paths. The support for candidate path selection based on candidate path preference information of the candidate paths may be provided within the context of candidate path selection which may include failover switching. The support for candidate path selection based on candidate path preference information may be based on support for distribution of the candidate path preference information of the candidate paths to network devices and use of the candidate path preference information of the candidate paths by the network devices to support selection of the candidate paths.

A controller obtains service information, and determines at least one forwarding device based on the service information. The controller generates an instruction list based on the service information and network function information of the at least one forwarding device, where the network function information is used to indicate a network function of the at least one forwarding device, and the instruction list includes a control instruction generated by the controller for the at least one forwarding device. The controller sends the corresponding control instruction in the instruction list to the at least one forwarding device, where the control instruction is used to instruct the at least one forwarding device to perform corresponding processing on a service packet of a service corresponding to the service information.

A controller obtains service information, and determines at least one forwarding device based on the service information. The controller generates an instruction list based on the service information and network function information of the at least one forwarding device, where the network function information is used to indicate a network function of the at least one forwarding device, and the instruction list includes a control instruction generated by the controller for the at least one forwarding device. The controller sends the corresponding control instruction in the instruction list to the at least one forwarding device, where the control instruction is used to instruct the at least one forwarding device to perform corresponding processing on a service packet of a service corresponding to the service information.

A method for determining a designated forwarder (DF) of a multicast flow, a device, and a system are disclosed. In an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) scenario, a customer edge (CE) device is connected to a plurality of provider edge (PE) devices in a dual-homed or multi-homed manner. A first PE device is any one of the plurality of PE devices. After determining that the CE device connected to an Ethernet link joins a multicast group of a multicast flow, the first PE device determines bandwidth occupation statuses of a plurality of Ethernet links included in an Ethernet segment (ES) to which the Ethernet link belongs, and then determines, as a DF of the multicast flow based on the multicast flow bandwidth occupation statuses of the plurality of Ethernet links, a PE device corresponding to an Ethernet link that occupies lowest multicast flow bandwidth.

The disclosed invention provide system and method to ensure resiliency in a network where audio capturing service experiences a failure on one or more active nodes. The network failover system is coupled to a Layer 3 (L3) network and communicates with a network switch through which network packets are transmitted. The failover system performs operations that include receiving network packets that are mirrored via the network switch, monitoring a primary node that captures audio data in the network packets, sending the network packets to a fallback node during an outage of the primary node, examining the network packets to determine which packets are audio-related packets, collecting audio-related packets, and storing the collected audio-related packets in a data storage. The fallback node is in the Layer 3 (L3) network.