Patent attributes
A method, information processing unit, and computer readable storage medium, are provided for distributing data packets efficiently across a packet-based data network of information processing units and intermediate nodes. The method with an information processing unit includes receiving data and identification of destinations on a packet-based data network, the data being associated with the identification of, and destined for reception by, each of the destinations on the packet-based data network. The method sends a single copy of the data across the packet-based data network via intermediate nodes to the destinations using a reliable multicast technique, the single copy of the data being sent contained in one or more multi-cast data packets. Each multi-cast data packet includes a multi-cast indicator and one or more unicast addresses associated with one or more of the destinations on the packet-based data network.