A method and apparatus for producing a multicast tree in a network traces
such tree based upon information retrieved from a multicast database that
is protocol independent. More particularly, the network includes a
plurality of network devices. A set of the plurality of network devices
each includes the prior noted protocol independent multicast database.
After the multicast database in each of the set of network devices is
located, the multicast information in such databases is retrieved. After
being retrieved, the multicast information is traced across the plurality
of network devices to form the multicast tree.