Patent attributes
A method implemented by a network node in a Bit Index Explicit Replication Traffic/Tree Engineering (BIER-TE) domain is used to avoid duplicate packets. The method includes generating an improved bit index forwarding table (BIFT) containing a forwarding entry for a local area network (LAN)-connected adjacency from the network node to a pseudo node; and a secondary BIFT including a forwarding entry for a forward connected adjacency from the pseudo node to each of the pseudo node's next hop nodes except the network node; sending a packet containing a point to multipoint (P2MP) path with a bit position for the LAN-connected adjacency to the pseudo node according to the forwarding entry for the LAN-connected adjacency in the improved BIFT; and sending the packet to each of the pseudo node's next hop nodes on the P2MP path based on the secondary BIFT.