A
multicast router having one or more downstream network interfaces situated in a data network
system between sources that send
multicast packets to at least one
multicast group address and one or more hosts that request data from the multicast group address and the sources. The multicast
router receives ASM (Any Source
Multicast) traffic requests and SSM (Source Specific
Multicast) traffic requests from the one or more hosts using a host-
router multicast
routing protocol and stores for a downstream
network interface and multicast group address at least one INCLUDE source
record containing a non-empty source
list derived by the SSM and the ASM traffic requests made by the one or more hosts and / or at least one EXCLUDE source
record containing a non-empty Requested source
list derived by the SSM and the ASM traffic requests made by the one or more hosts. In an alternative implementation a multicast router is provided that has one or more downstream network interfaces and is situated in a data network
system between sources that send
multicast packets to at least one multicast group address and multiple hosts that request data from the multicast group address and the sources. The multicast router stores for a each downstream
network interface, each multicast group address and each host at least one INCLUDE source
record and at least one EXCLUDE source record which are derived from ASM and SSM traffic requests made by the hosts using a host-router multicast
routing protocol.