Method for establishing multicast virtual circuits

A multicast connection arrangement is provided by which a source node may establish multicast virtual circuits to a group of destination nodes of an arbitrary-topology network using a single procedure, and may subsequently modify those circuits, i.e., add or delete destination nodes, with a single, related procedure. The arrangement includes a multicast setup packet for opening the multicast virtual circuits, the packet containing a multicast identifier field, a virtual circuit field and a destination field identifying a list of desired destination node addresses. The multicast setup packet may be also used to add destination nodes to the circuits, while a multicast delete packet is used to delete nodes from the circuits. When adding nodes to the multicast virtual circuits, a topology analysis process is provided to prevent the formation of an unstable network topology.