Methods, devices and computer readable storage media for performing bit indexed explicit replication (BIER) are disclosed. One embodiment of a method includes receiving, at an ingress node of a network, a data packet comprising a multicast group identifier. This embodiment also includes obtaining, from a group membership table, a bit mask corresponding to the multicast group identifier. The bit mask comprises a plurality of bit positions, and each bit position corresponds to a respective egress node of the network. The embodiment also includes encapsulating the data packet with the bit mask and forwarding the encapsulated data packet using the bit mask.