Techniques for utilizing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controllers and network border leaf nodes of respective cloud computing networks to configure a data transmission route for a multicast group. Each border leaf node may maintain a respective external sources database, including a number of records indicating associations between a multicast data source, one or more respective border leaf nodes disposed in the same network as the multicast data source, and network capability information. A border leaf node, disposed in the same network as a multicast data source, may broadcast a local source discovery message to all border leaf nodes in remote networks to which it is communicatively coupled. A border leaf node may also communicate network capability information associated with one or more remote networks to a local SDN controller. The SDN controller may utilize the network capability information to configure a data transmission route to one or more destination nodes.

Embodiments of this application disclose a communications method, apparatus, and system. Specifically, after receiving information about a multicast area from a sender of a multicast service, a first core network device in a first network obtains, based on the information, indication information indicates that the first network cannot support the multicast service in the multicast area, or indicates that the first network supports the multicast service in a portion of areas of the multicast area; and sends the indication information to the sender. In this way, the sender of the multicast service can determine whether the first network supports the multicast service in the multicast area.

The present invention relates to systems and methods suitable for verifying and compensating nodes for streaming multimedia. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods that utilize a blockchain to verify and compensate devices for computational resources contributions when streaming multimedia over a decentralized network.

Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a user equipment may transmit an indication of one or more beams for simultaneous unicast and multicast monitoring and receive, using the one or more beams, at least one of unicast traffic or multicast traffic. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Disclosed herein are playback devices, groups of playback devices, and methods of operating playback devices and groupings thereof to cause the playback devices in a mixed-mode configuration to play audio content in synchrony with each other.

An information processing method, an interconnection device, and a computer-readable storage medium are provided. The interconnection device includes a request processing module configured for: receiving a data access request from at least one processor, wherein the data access request comprises a merge bit, a multicast group identifier (MGID), and a multicast transaction identifier (MTID); determining whether the data access request is a multicast request; determining whether the interconnection device receives other multicast requests if it is determined that the data access request is a multicast request based on the MGID, the MTID, and a static routing policy of a multicast group; and obtaining the other multicast requests if it is determined that the interconnection device receives the other multicast requests, merging the multicast request with the other multicast requests into a merged request, and forwarding the merged request to a next-hop device of the interconnection device.

Techniques for utilizing Software-Defined Networking (SDN) controllers and network border leaf nodes of respective cloud computing networks to configure a data transmission route for a multicast group. Each border leaf node may maintain a respective external sources database, including a number of records indicating associations between a multicast data source, one or more respective border leaf nodes disposed in the same network as the multicast data source, and network capability information. A border leaf node, disposed in the same network as a multicast data source, may broadcast a local source discovery message to all border leaf nodes in remote networks to which it is communicatively coupled. A border leaf node may also communicate network capability information associated with one or more remote networks to a local SDN controller. The SDN controller may utilize the network capability information to configure a data transmission route to one or more destination nodes.

Some embodiments of the invention provide novel methods for providing transparent services for multicast data messages traversing a network edge device operating at a boundary between two networks. The method analyzes data messages received at the network edge device to determine whether they require a service provided at the boundary and whether they are unicast or multicast (including broadcast). The method modifies a multicast destination media access control (MAC) address of a multicast data message requiring a service to be a unicast destination MAC address and provides, without processing by a standard routing function, the modified data message directly to an interface associated with a service node that provides the particular service required by the data message. The method receives the serviced data message, restores the multicast destination MAC address, and forwards the serviced data message to a set of destinations associated with the multicast destination address.

Techniques are described for managing communications for a managed computer network by using a defined pool of alternative computing nodes of the managed computer network that are configured to operate as intermediate destinations to handle at least some communications that are sent by and/or directed to one or more other computing nodes of the managed computer network. For example, a manager module associated with a source computing node may select a particular alternative intermediate destination computing node from a defined pool to use for one or more particular communications from the source computing node to an indicated final destination, such as based on a configured logical network topology for the managed computer network and/or on one or more other selection criteria (e.g., to enable load balancing between the alternative computing nodes). The manager module then forwards those communications to the selected intermediate destination computing node for further handling.

The present invention relates to systems and methods suitable for verifying and compensating nodes for streaming multimedia. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods that utilize a blockchain to verify and compensate devices for computational resources contributions when streaming multimedia over a decentralized network.