Multicast source routing in packet-switched networks

In this paper we present an address coding mechanism for multicast source routing packets in packet-switched networks. A simple algorithm for processing these address codes at intermediate output link adaptors is presented. It involves only the recognition of a particular link label at the front part of the address code and the stripping off of a front segment of the address code and so can easily be implemented in hardware. Recognizing that the recipients of a multicast packet very often need to respond to the source node, we designed the reverse path address code that allows an individual destination node to retrieve the reverse path address without searching the topology database and invoking any route computation program.< >