Importance

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Abstract

A method and apparatus for per connection queuing of multicast transmissions. The method begins by receiving a cell associated with a multicast transmission. A multicast transmission typically includes a single ingress connection and a plurality of egress connections. The processing then continues by queuing the cell in a next available cell buffer of a root queue that is associated with the multicast transmission. Next, a determination is made as to whether a predetermined number of leaf queues (i.e., queues associated with egress queue identifiers) associated with the multicast transmission are empty when the queuing of the cell commences. Each of a plurality of leaf queues is associated with a corresponding one of the egress connections of the multicast transmission. A leaf queue will be empty when the corresponding egress connection has transported all of the data cells contained within the root queue associated with the multicast transmission. When the queuing of the cell commences, the identity of any empty leaf queues will be included in a segment queue. The processing continues by either appending the identities of the leaf queues in the segment queue to an update queue as a segment, or by updating the head pointers of the empty leaf queues (activating the empty leaf queues) while the cell is being received and enqueued in the root queue. The update queue then allows the empty leaf queues in the segment to be activated after the cell has been enqueued.

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First Claim