Patent attributes
Techniques are described to replicate multicast packets in accordance with a hierarchical data structure. For example, upon receiving a multicast packet, a packet-forwarding engine may communicate the packet to packet-forwarding engines corresponding to starting nodes of the hierarchical data structure. The packet-forwarding engines corresponding to starting nodes of the hierarchical data structure may replicate the multicast packet for local interface cards, and forward the replicated packets to the network. Furthermore, the packet-forwarding engines may replicate the packet for packet-forwarding engines corresponding to downstream nodes. In this manner, the packet replication process is distributed throughout the router decreasing the complexity of necessary replication hardware. Furthermore, the packet replication process is highly scalable resulting in a latency of one fabric hop when the number of packet-forwarding engines doubles. Also, when the hierarchical data structure has more than one starting node, the packet replication process is less susceptible to a single point failure.
