Abstract: The invention is based on a highly efficient protocol for the delivery of high-quality multimedia communication services, such as video multicasting, video on demand, real-time interactive video telephony, and high-fidelity audio conferencing over a packet-switched network. The invention addresses the silicon bottleneck problem and enables high-quality multimedia services to be widely used. The invention can be expressed in a variety of ways, including methods, systems, and data structures. One aspect of the invention involves a method in which a packet (10) of multimedia data is forwarded through a plurality of logical links in a connection-oriented, packet-switched network using a datagram address contained in the packet (i.e., datagram address-based routing). The datagram address operates as both a data link layer address and a network layer address.