In a mesh-based connected data center network architecture, a mechanism is provided to allow efficient delivery of IP multicast frames within the network. Described approaches avoid replication into VLANs (or SVIs) across the fabric by using the outer encapsulated tree to identify trees on which to replicate the traffic. Replication may be performed at the furthest point from the source (via routing or bridging). Also, multicast traffic may be distributed to dually connected (vPC) hosts on links from various network devices.