Flooding and multicasting in a loop-free routing topology using routing arcs

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor circuit configured for creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching multicast listeners from a multicast source, each routing arc comprising a first network device as a first end of the routing arc, a second network device as a second end of the routing arc, and at least a third network device configured for receiving from each of the first and second network devices a copy of a multicast packet originated from the multicast source;
• and
• a network interface circuit configured for causing the multicast packet to be propagated throughout the loop-free routing topology based on the first and second ends of each routing arc forwarding the corresponding copy into the corresponding routing arc.

Logic encoded in one or more non-transitory tangible media for execution and when executed operable for:

• creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching multicast listeners from a multicast source, each routing arc comprising a first network device as a first end of the routing arc, a second network device as a second end of the routing arc, and at least a third network device configured for receiving from each of the first and second network devices a copy of a multicast packet originated from the multicast source;
• and
• causing the multicast packet to be propagated throughout the loop-free routing topology based on the first and second ends of each routing arc forwarding the corresponding copy into the corresponding routing arc.