Multicast Support for Internet Protocol Version Four Residual Deployment Via Encapsulation or Translation

An Internet Protocol (IP) version four (IPv4) Residual Deployment via IP version six (IPv6) (4rd) border relay (BR) comprising:

• a transceiver configured to communicate with an IPv6 network;
• and
• a processor coupled to the transceiver and configured to:
• receive multicast packets from a multicast source;
• and
• transmit the multicast packets to a host via the IPv6 network and a 4rd customer edge (CE).

A method comprising:

• sending, by a host, an internet group management protocol (IGMP) join message to an Internet Protocol (IP) version four (IPv4) Residual Deployment via IP version six (IPv6) (4rd) customer edge (CE) router;
• encapsulating, by the CE, the IGMP join message in an IPv6 message and sending the IPv6 message over a network tunnel to a 4rd Border Relay (BR) in anycast;
• receiving, by the BR, the IPv6 message and decapsulating the IPv6 message;
• and
• sending, by the BR, an upstream IGMP join message or a protocol independent multicast (PIM) join message to subscribe to a multicast group.

A method comprising:

• sending, by a host, a subscription request for an Internet Protocol (IP) version four (IPv4) multicast group upstream to a IPv4 Residual Deployment via IP version six (IPv6) (4rd) customer edge (CE), wherein the CE comprises an internet group management protocol (IGMP) proxy facing an IPv4 local area network (LAN) interface and a multicast listener discovery (MLD) proxy facing an IPv6 wide area network (WAN) interface;
• synthesizing, by the CE, an IPv6 multicast group address corresponding to the IPv4 multicast group;
• and
• sending, by the MLD proxy, an MLD report message upstream to join the multicast group.