Abstract: The benefits of a multicast-enabled network are realized by a flexible, easy to deploy, software-based solution that does not require reconfiguring of network routers. Systems and methods that implement this solution can perform as follows. A packet is received that was sent by a sender to at least one receiver, and the packet includes a parameter relating to a multicast announce address. A forwarding rules set is associated with the packet if the parameter has a defined value. This forwarding rules set is used to determine whether any of the at least one destination addresses included in the packet corresponds to one of the receivers that has a receiver format that must be converted. In addition, the forwarding rules set defines when a packet should be converted from a sender format to a receiver format before forwarding the packet.

Abstract: The benefits of a multicast-enabled network are realized by a flexible, easy to deploy, software-based solution that does not require reconfiguring of network routers. Systems and methods that implement this solution can perform as follows. A packet is received that was sent by a sender to at least one receiver, and the packet includes a parameter relating to a multicast announce address. A forwarding rules set is associated with the packet if the parameter has a defined value. This forwarding rules set is used to determine whether any of the at least one destination addresses included in the packet corresponds to one of the receivers that has a receiver format that must be converted. In addition, the forwarding rules set defines when a packet should be converted from a sender format to a receiver format before forwarding the packet.

Abstract: To make registration and confirmation of groups and confirmation of data transmission more scaleable, particularly for large groups, the size of a host list pruned in subsequent transmission. This host list management can be achieved by (a) creating a message that includes a list of one or more receivers;(b) sending the message over a network; (c) receiving over the network one or more replies from one or more of the receivers; (d) identifying each receiver for which one of the replies was received and establishing another message that includes the list with the identified receivers; (e) sending the message established in step (d) over the network; (f) creating a modified list by removing the identified receivers from the list; and (g) if there are one or more receivers on the modified list, repeating steps (c), (d), (e), (f), and (g) using the modified list as the list.

Abstract: A data transmission method quickly and reliably transfers data (e.g., a computer file) from a source to recipients. While the frames are being transmitted, negative acknowledgments from recipients are received by the source. These acknowledgments indicate which frames require retransmission. After all frames have been transmitted out, a retransmission is performed by the source for only those frames which the acknowledgments indicate require retransmission. Additional retransmissions can occur. This multi-pass data transfer technique requires only negative acknowledgements to be sent by the recipients. Features include the ability to set the transmission rate and to define multicast groups. Also, it is possible to determine the capacity of links of unknown capacity using a "multicast network probe" feature of the invention, and to determine the frame error rates of known-capacity links by utilizing the same feature.

Abstract: A data transmission method quickly and reliably transfers data (e.g., a computer file) from a source to recipients. While the frames are being transmitted, negative acknowledgments from recipients are received by the source. These acknowledgments indicate which frames require retransmission. After all frames have been transmitted out, a retransmission is performed by the source for only those frames which the acknowledgments indicate require retransmission. Additional retransmissions can occur. This multi-pass data transfer technique requires only negative acknowledgements to be sent by the recipients. Features include the ability to set the transmission rate and to define multicast groups. Also, it is possible to determine the capacity of links of unknown capacity using a "multicast network probe" feature of the invention, and to determine the frame error rates of known-capacity links by utilizing the same feature.