High-speed processing of multicast content requests

A method for communication, comprising:

• operating a network element, wherein the network element further comprises multiple interconnected processing units and multiple ports, wherein each processing unit is assigned to a different subset of the multiple ports of the network element, and wherein each processing unit contains a processor for processing packets communicated over the different subset of the multiple ports to which the processing unit is assigned;
• storing in each processing unit a respective list, each list indicating all of one or more multicast packet streams that are permitted for forwarding by the network element, and further indicating which of the one or more ports each multicast packet stream is permitted to be forwarded to;
• receiving from a client a request relating to reception of a given multicast packet stream;
• distributing the request among the multiple processing units within the network element, and updating the respective list in each processing unit responsively to the request;
• and
• selectively forwarding multicast packets associated with the given multicast packet stream by the processing units in accordance with the respective updated lists,
• wherein operating the network element comprises initializing a new processing unit added to the network element by:
• deactivating the ports to which the new processing unit is assigned;
• while the ports to which the new processing unit is assigned are deactivated, sending a multicast status request, receiving multicast membership reports sent by multicast clients in response to the multicast status request, constructing the list by the new processing unit based on the received multicast membership reports;
• and
• after constructing the list, activating the ports to which the new processing unit is assigned.

A network element, comprising;

• multiple ports;
• and
• multiple interconnected processing units, wherein each processing unit is assigned to a different subset of the multiple ports of the network element, and wherein each processing unit contains a processor for processing packets communicated over the different subset of the multiple ports to which the processing unit is assigned, wherein the processing units are configured to process packets that are communicated over respective subsets of one or more of the ports,
• to store respective lists, each of which indicates all of one or more multicast packet streams that are permitted for forwarding by the network element and further indicates which of the one or more ports multicast packet stream is permitted to be forwarded to,
• to receive from a client a request relating to reception of a given multicast packet stream, and
• to distribute the request among the processing units within the network element so as to update the lists responsively to the distributed request and to selectively forward multicast packets associated with the given multicast packet stream in accordance with the updated lists,
• wherein two or more of the ports are aggregated to form a high-capacity port, and wherein an upper limit is set on a number of the multicast packet streams that are permitted for forwarding over the high-capacity port, wherein the request indicates that the given multicast packet stream is to be forwarded over the high-capacity port, and wherein the processing units are configured to update the lists to indicate that the given multicast packet stream is permitted for forwarding over the high-capacity port only when the number of the multicast packet streams that are permitted for forwarding over the high-capacity port, including the given multicast packet stream, does not exceed the upper limit.

A network element, comprising;

• multiple ports;
• and
• multiple interconnected processing units, wherein each processing unit is assigned to a different subset of the multiple ports of the network element, and wherein each processing unit contains a processor for processing packets communicated over the different subset of the multiple ports to which the processing unit is assigned, wherein the processing units are configured to process packets that are communicated over respective subsets of one or more of the ports,
• to store respective lists, each of which indicates all of one or more multicast packet streams that are permitted for forwarding by the network element and further indicates which of the one or more ports multicast packet stream is permitted to be forwarded to,
• to receive from a client a request relating to reception of a given multicast packet stream, and
• to distribute the request among the processing units within the network element so as to update the lists responsively to the distributed request and to selectively forward multicast packets associated with the given multicast packet stream in accordance with the updated lists,
• wherein a new processing unit added to the network element is configured to initialize by:
• deactivating the ports to which the new processing unit is assigned;
• while the ports to which the new processing unit is assigned are deactivated, sending a multicast status request, receiving multicast membership reports sent by multicast clients in response to the multicast status request, constructing the list by the new processing unit based on the received multicast membership reports;
• and
• after constructing the list, activating the ports to which the new processing unit is assigned.