| CPC H04L 45/22 (2013.01) [H04L 12/1886 (2013.01); H04L 12/4641 (2013.01); H04L 45/245 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |

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1. A method comprising:
electing, by a first network device in a subnet, the first network device as a designated forwarder (DF) of multicast traffic in the subnet for a Rendezvous Point (RP) of a multicast group, wherein the first network device operates in conjunction with a second network device as a virtual gateway network device of the subnet, and wherein the second network device is elected as another DF for the RP;
electing, by the first network device based on a selection parameter, a forwarding device for forwarding the multicast traffic from the virtual gateway network device;
determining, by the first network device, whether the first network device is elected as the forwarding device;
in response to determining that the first network device is elected as the forwarding device, programming, in forwarding hardware of the first network device, a forwarding entry for forwarding the multicast traffic; and
forwarding the multicast traffic associated with the multicast group based on the forwarding entry.
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