When a multicast packet enters a router's interface, the router looks up the list of networks that are reachable via that interface (i.e., it checks the paths by which the packet could have arrived). If the router finds a matching routing entry for the source IP address of the multicast packet, the RPF check passes and the packet is forwarded to all other interfaces that are participating in that multicast group. If the RPF check fails, the packet is dropped. As a result, the forwarding of the packet is decided based upon the reverse path of the packet rather than the forward path. By only forwarding packets that come into the interface that also holds the routing entry for the source of the packet, loops are prevented.