MULTICAST DISTRIBUTION TREE VERSIONING FOR MINIMIZING MULTICAST GROUP TRAFFIC DISRUPTION

A method is implemented by a network device to minimize multicast traffic loss or duplication in response to an update to multicast group membership in a network where multicast group membership changes can disrupt multicast traffic delivery to other members of the multicast group. The method receives a registration for the multicast group including a member since version number that is greater than the version number currently advertised by the root for a multicast distribution tree (MDT) that serves the multicast group. The root advertises a new MDT identifier (ID) with a new version number for the MDT that serves the multicast group in the network, and switches distribution of multicast group traffic from the current version of the MDT that serves the multicast group to the new version of the MDT that serves the multicast group after a pre-determined time.