A system, apparatus, and method are directed to managing multicast routing using a network cluster. A cluster master actively participates in multicast control protocol communications with the cluster neighbors, while non-master member nodes, do not participate in the protocols' operation outside of the cluster. However, each cluster member maintains virtually the same protocol state, such that should the master become unavailable, another cluster member may assume the master role with minimum delay. New members to the cluster are synchronized by receiving initial protocol state information from the master. After the initial protocol state synchronization, cluster members actively monitor the network to acquire new protocol state information. In addition, cluster members exchange protocol state information between themselves that may not be obtainable off the network. Filtering of multicast data packets is performed by each cluster member, to load balance multicast data traffic across the cluster members.