Computing Point-to-Multipoint Paths

A method comprising:

• receiving a path computation element (PCE) protocol (PCEP) request from a path computation client (PCC) that requests the addition of a plurality of destination addresses to an existing point-to-multipoint (P2MP), wherein traffic is carried over the existing P2MP path before the PCEP request message is received;
• and
• computing or attempting to compute a plurality of additional branches for the existing P2MP path, wherein the each of the branches extend to a leaf that corresponds to one of the destination addresses.

A method comprising:

• receiving a request or reply message comprising a request/reply (RP) object comprising a flag bits field,
• wherein an explicit route object (ERO)-compression (E) bit in the flag bits field of the RP object signals to the receiver of the message that the route is in the compressed format or is not in the compressed format.