A multicast replication engine includes a circuit implemented on a network chip to replicate packets, mirror packets and perform link switchovers. The multicast replication engine determines whether a switchover feature is enabled. If the switchover feature is not enabled, then the multicast replication engine mirrors the packet according to a mirror bit mask and to a mirror destination linked list. The mirror destination linked list corresponds to a mirroring rule. If the switchover feature is enabled, then the multicast replication engine replicates the packet according to a first live link of a failover linked list. The failover linked list corresponds to a switchover rule. The mirroring rule and the switchover rule are stored in the same table. Copies of the packet are forwarded according to a multicast rule that is represented by a hierarchical linked list with N tiers.