A data packet forwarding method including receiving, by a network node, a data packet that comprises a bit string, a BFIR identifier (ID), and a multicast replication path (MRP) ID, wherein the BFIR ID identifies an ingress network node for a multicast group, and wherein the MRP ID identifies the multicast group, identifying an entry in a BIER Replication Path Cache Table (BRCT) using the BFIR ID and the MRP ID, wherein the entry identifies a replication neighbor (NBR) list associated with the BFIR ID and the MRP ID, and forwarding the data packet in accordance with the replication NBR list.

A multicast rule is represented in a hierarchical linked list with N tiers. Each tier or level in the hierarchical linked list corresponds to a network layer of a network stack that requires replication. Redundant groups in each tier are eliminated such that the groups in each tier are stored exactly once in a replication table. A multicast replication engine traverses the hierarchical linked list and replicates a packet according to each node in the hierarchical linked list.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for indicating a multicast forwarding entry and a device. The method includes: receiving a packet from a first node, wherein the packet comprises a multicast control message and an access loop identifier; obtaining, according to a multicast Internet Protocol (IP) address in the multicast control message, a multicast Media Access Control (MAC) address; obtaining an identifier of a first port according to the access loop identifier, wherein the first port is an egress port, on the multicast path, of the first port; sending a first forwarding entry to the first node, wherein a destination address of the first forwarding entry is the multicast MAC address and egress port information of the first forwarding entry is the identifier of the first port.

In some examples, a method includes receiving, by an egress network device for a network, messages from each of a plurality of ingress network devices for the network, wherein each of the messages specifies a multicast source, a multicast group, and an upstream multicast hop weight value for multicast traffic for the multicast source and the multicast group; selecting, by the egress network device and based on the upstream multicast hop weight values specified by the received messages, one of the plurality of ingress network devices to which to send a multicast join message of a plurality of multicast join messages for the multicast source and multicast group; and sending, by the egress network device, the multicast join message to the selected one of the plurality of ingress network devices.

Data forwarding method, device, and system are provided for software-defined networking. An SDN control device delivers a proactive flow entry according to network topology information, where the proactive flow entry is unrelated to a service, and instead related to the network topology information. The proactive flow entry may be reused during data forwarding. After data is received, the SDN control device delivers reactive flow entries to some switching devices, where the reactive flow entries are related to the service, but are delivered to a subset of switching devices. This reduces flow entries delivered by the SDN control device to some switching devices, so that occupation of resources of the SDN control device and a switching device by flow entries is reduced.

Example methods disclosed herein include registering a first leaf node to receive multicast data from a source via a first network node in response to receiving, from the first leaf node, a first message addressed to an anycast address, the anycast addressed being assigned to the first network node to associate the first network node with a second hierarchical level of a replication hierarchy. The disclosed example methods also include receiving the multicast data from a second network node associated with a first hierarchical level of the replication hierarchy. The disclosed example methods further include, after registering the first leaf node with the first network node, replicating the multicast data to generate copies of the multicast data to be transmitted via respective unicast paths to respective ones of a plurality of leaf nodes, including the first leaf node, registered with the first network node to receive the multicast data.

A mapping relationship between a private network multicast group address, which may be preset to support switching from a default Multicast Distribution Tree (MDT) to a data MDT, and a data group address may be stored in a first PE device. If a private network multi cast data flow corresponding to the mapping relationship satisfies a condition of switching from the default MDT to the data MDT, the first PE device may send a data MDT switch initiation packet including the private network multicast group address and the data group address to a second PE device on the default MDI, so that the second PE device joins the data MDT, a root of which is the first PE device, using the data group address. The first PE device may switch the private network multicast data flow to the data MDT, so that the private network multicast data flow is transmitted on the data MDT.

Disclosed are systems and methods for the delivery of multi-unicast communication traffic. A multimedia router is adapted to analyze and identify contents which it handles and one or more access nodes are adapted to receive one or more of the identified contents, cache contents based on said identification; and use cached contents as substitutes for redundant traffic, received by the same access node.

In some embodiments, a method processes a first packet and generates a first copy of the first packet as a second packet. The method sends second copies of the first packet to a first group of multiple destinations defined by a first address. Also, the method sends the second packet to an interface with a loopback function. The interface recirculates the second packet for further processing. The second packet is processed where the second packet is assigned a destination of a second address. Then, the method sends copies of the second packet to a second group of multiple destinations defined by the second address.

Provided are a multicast message processing method and device, a storage medium and a processor. The method includes: a multicast group address is acquired from a received multicast message; according to the multicast group address, first routing information matching the multicast group address is searched in first data by means of a Hash algorithm; according to mark information and source address information of a multicast group, matched second routing information is searched in second data by means of the Hash algorithm; if the second routing information is found, the multicast message is sent according to next hop information of the multicast message in the second routing information; and if the second routing information is not found, the multicast message is sent according to the next hop information of the multicast message in the first routing information.