Patent attributes
A switch includes a plurality of ports. A memory stores a bridge table including an entry that associates an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast destination address and an IP source address with a port indicator, which identifies one or more of the plurality of ports. When the switch receives an Ethernet packet comprising an IP multicast packet, a controller generates a key based on an IP multicast destination address and an IP source address associated with the Ethernet packet and performs a lookup on the bridge table using the key. The controller floods the Ethernet packet to the one or more ports identified by the port indicator in response to confirming that the entry is an IP multicast entry and determining that the IP multicast destination address and the IP source address of the entry matches the IP multicast destination address and the IP source address of the Ethernet packet.
