Method and system for reliable multicast

1. An adapter for transmitting a multicast message with one or more packets, to a plurality of destinations, comprising:

an entry port that receives the multicast message from a source for

transmission to the plurality of destinations;

at least one egress port that transmits one or more packets of the multicast

message to the plurality of destinations and the at least one egress port receives an acknowledgement for one or more packets from one or more destinations; and

a message manager that monitors delivery status for the one or more packets of the multicast message to the plurality of destinations without using a plurality of dedicated individual connections between each of the plurality of destinations and the source; and

the message manager creates a data structure to track and process each of the packets, builds an entry for a flow key that is a unique identifier of a source of the multicast message, and builds an entry for a packet sequence number upon receiving the multicast message.

2. The adapter of claim 1 , wherein the message manager provides a delivery status for the multicast message to the source to after transmission of all the packets of the multicast message.

3. The adapter of claim 1 , wherein the message manager stores one or more packets of the multicast message for retransmission to a destination based upon the delivery status for the one or more packets to the destination.

4. The adapter of claim 1 , wherein the adapter decodes a portion of the multicast message to determine addresses of one or more destinations to which the multicast message is sent.

5. The adapter of claim 4 , wherein the message manager is operationally coupled to a first subnet and one of the egress ports is operationally coupled to a second adapter operationally coupled to a second subnet, the second adapter operationally coupled to one or more destinations and based upon a decoded portion of the multicast message by the address decoder of the adapter one or more packets of the multicast message are sent by the adapter to the second adapter for distribution to one or more destinations operationally coupled to the second adapter.

6. The second adapter of claim 5 , comprising:

a message manager, the message manager of the second adapter monitors a delivery status for the one or more packets of the multicast message sent to destinations operationally coupled to the second adapter and sends a consolidated delivery status for multicast message to the message manager of the adapter.

7. The adapter of claim 2 , wherein the message manager is configured to receive an additional multicast message from the source for transmission to multiple destinations before the message manager provides the delivery status to the source for the multicast message previously received from the source.

8. A method for transmitting a multicast message with one or more packets from an adapter to a plurality of destinations, comprising:

receiving the multicast message from a source at an entry port of the adapter for transmission to the plurality of destinations;

transmitting one or more packets of the multicast message through one or more egress ports to the plurality of destinations and receiving an acknowledgement for one or more of the packets from one or more of the plurality of destinations; and

monitoring delivery status by a message manager for one or more packets to the plurality of destinations without using a plurality of dedicated individual connections between each of the plurality of destinations and the source; and

the message manager creates a data structure to track and process each of the packets in response to receiving the multicast message; builds an entry for a flow key that is a unique identifier of a source of the multicast message; and builds an entry for a packet sequence number.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

providing a delivery status for the multicast message to the source after transmission of all the packets of the multicast message.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

storing one or more packets of the multicast message for retransmission to a destination based upon delivery status for the one or more packets to the destination.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:

decoding a portion of the multicast message to determine addresses of one or more destinations to which the multicast message is sent wherein the adapter decodes the portion of the multicast message.

12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

sending one or more of the packets to a second adapter in a subnet different from a subnet of the source, the second adapter operationally coupled to one or more destinations.

13. The method of claim 9 , further comprising:

receiving an additional multicast message from the source for transmission to the plurality of destinations before the message manager provides the delivery status to the source for the multicast message previously received from the source.

14. A system for transmitting a multicast message with one or more packets to a plurality of destinations comprising:

an adapter including: an entry port to receive the multicast message from a source for transmission to the plurality of destinations; and

one or more egress ports of the adapter that transmit one or more packets of the multicast message to the plurality of destinations and receives acknowledgement for the one or more packets from the one or more destinations; and

a message manager that monitors delivery status for the one or more packets of the multicast message to the plurality of destinations without using a plurality of dedicated individual connections between each of the plurality of destinations and the source; and

the message manager creates a data structure to track and process each of the packets, builds an entry for a flow key that is a unique identifier of a source of the multicast message, builds an entry for a packet sequence number upon receiving the multicast message.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the message manager provides to the source the delivery status for the multicast message after transmission of all the packets of the multicast message.

16. The system of claim 14 , wherein the adapter stores one or more packets of the multicast message for retransmission to a destination based upon the delivery status for the one or more packets to the destination.

17. The system of claim 14 , further the adapter decodes a portion of the multicast message to determine addresses of one or more destinations to which the multicast message is sent.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the adapter is operationally coupled to a first subnet and one of the egress ports is operationally coupled to a second adapter operationally coupled to a second subnet the second adapter operationally coupled to one or more destinations; and based upon a decoded portion of the multicast message by the adapter, one or more packets of the multicast message are sent by the adapter to the second adapter for distribution to one or more destinations operationally coupled to the second adapter.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the second adapter comprises: a message manager the message manager of the second adapter monitors the delivery status for the one or more packets of the multicast message sent to destinations operationally coupled to the second adapter and sends a consolidated delivery status for multicast message to the message manager of the adapter.

20. The system of claim 15 , wherein the adapter is configured to receive additional messages from the source for transmission to a plurality of destinations before the message manager provides the delivery status to the source for the multicast message previously received from the source.

21. The system of claim 15 , wherein the message manager includes a local message manager and a global message manager, the local message manager operationally communicates with the global message manager, and the local message manager consolidates a delivery status of the multicast message and communicates the delivery status to the global message manager.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein there are redundant global message managers with one of the global message managers identified as a primary global message manager.

23. The system of claim 21 , wherein the global message manager maintains a list of destinations to which one or more packets of the multicast message is to be delivered and upon receipt of a delivery status for one or more packets of the multicast message from the local message manager indicating an error, modifies the list of destinations to which the multicast message is to be delivered and communicates the modification to the local message manager.

24. The system of claim 14 , wherein the message manager sends an error status to the source if a delivery confirmation for one or more packets of the multicast message is not received from the destination within a certain time period.

25. The system of claim 14 , wherein the message manager deletes a destination from the list of multiple destinations upon receipt of error status for one or more packets of the multicast message sent to the destination.