Method and system for reliable multicast

A system for processing a multicast message including one or more packets to be sent to a plurality of destinations, comprising:

• an adapter including an entry port to receive the multicast message from a source for transmission to the plurality of destinations;
• one or more egress ports of the adapter that transmit the one or more packets of the multicast message to the plurality of destinations and receives acknowledgement for the one or more packets from the one or more destinations;
• and
• a message manager that monitors delivery status for the one or more packets to the plurality of destinations without using a plurality of dedicated individual connections between each of the plurality of destinations and the source, and sends a consolidated delivery status for the multicast message to the source after transmission of all the packets of the multicast message, wherein the message manager creates a data structure to track and process each of the packets, builds an entry for a flow key that is a unique identifier of a source of the multicast message and builds an entry for a packet sequence number upon receiving the multicast message;
• wherein the adapter is configured to receive an additional multicast message from the source for transmission to the destinations before the message manager provides the delivery status to the source for the multicast message previously received from the source.

A method for processing a multicast message from an adapter, the multicast message including one or more packets to be sent to a plurality of destinations, comprising:

• receiving the multicast message from a source at an entry port of the adapter for transmission to the plurality of destinations;
• transmitting the one or more packets of the multicast message through one or more egress ports to the plurality of destinations and receiving an acknowledgement for one or more of the packets from one or more of the plurality of destinations;
• and
• monitoring delivery status for the one or more packets to the plurality of destinations, wherein a message manager monitors the delivery status without using a plurality of dedicated individual connections between each of the plurality of destinations and the source, and sends a consolidated delivery status for the multicast message to the source after transmission of all the packets of the multicast message, wherein the message manager creates a data structure to track and process each of the packets, builds an entry for a flow key that is a unique identifier of a source of the multicast message and builds an entry for a packet sequence number upon receiving the multicast message;
• wherein the adapter is configured to receive an additional multicast message from the source for transmission to the destinations before the message manager provides the delivery status to the source for the multicast message previously received from the source.