CPC H04L 45/16 (2013.01) [H04L 12/185 (2013.01); H04L 12/56 (2013.01); H04L 45/74 (2013.01); H04L 2012/5625 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |
1. A method performed at least partly by a Bit Index Replication (BIER) replicator node that is configured to implement a BIER protocol, comprising:
receiving, from a data source and at the BIER replicator node, a stream packet sent using the BIER protocol and that has a metadata-enabled header that indicates a replicator policy, wherein the stream packet further identifies a service-level cast group address of a service-level cast group;
determining that the replicator policy indicates that the stream packet is to be replicated;
replicating, via the BIER replicator node, the stream packet according to the BIER protocol to result in two or more replicated stream packets; and
transmitting, via the BIER replicator node, the two or more replicated stream packets to receiver nodes that are configured to implement BIER.
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