| CPC H04L 12/185 (2013.01) [H04L 12/1886 (2013.01); H04L 12/4641 (2013.01); H04L 45/16 (2013.01); H04L 2101/622 (2022.05)] | 18 Claims |

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1. A method of performing a service on a multicast data message at an edge between a source network and a destination network, the method comprising:
determining that the data message from the source network is a multicast data message (i) that is addressed to multiple destinations in the destination network and (ii) that requires a particular service;
changing a multicast destination network address to a unicast network address associated with a service node that performs the particular service;
providing the data message to the service node to perform the service and return a service data message; and
after receiving the serviced data message from the service node, changing the destination network address of the serviced data message to the multicast network address, before forwarding the serviced data message to the destination network to forward to the multiple destinations;
wherein the service node provides a bump-in-the-wire service that does not change the destination network addresses of the serviced data message.
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