Since multicastmay havemanyreceivers, foreffectivetransmission, the routerneedsatree to join multiple IPmembers, with Multicast RIP and its data packetforwardingfunction.
Software-defined networks will provide some of this flexibility by separating the control function from data forwarding, but there are additional capabilities emerging, he says, such as intelligent switching of wavelengths, the ability to mix dedicated bandwidth with best-efforts networks, and application layer network traffic optimization, e.g.