MULTICAST COMMUNICATION
Breaking Down IP Multicast Routing
Webinar #207
What is Multicast communication?
• It is a technology for one-to-many communication.
• A technology that optimizes network bandwidth utilization and conserves
system resources.
• A technique that transfers packets from one source to many receivers
simultaneously.
Another way of providing one-to-many packet delivery –
Replicated Unicast.
Multicast Vs Replicated Unicast
• Multicast source sends only a single copy of any packet
• Replicated unicast, the source would have to send as many copies as the
number of known receivers
• Multicasting relies on –
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) for its operation in L2
networks
Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) for its operation in Layer 3
networks
Multicast Vs Replicated Unicast
Multicast Important Terms -
• The data packets – Stream
• Multicast destination IP address – Group address
• Recipient devices of a multicast stream – Receivers
Common Multicast Apps –
• Audio/Video Conferencing
• Gaming
• IPTV
L3 Multicast – IP Addressing & MAC
L3 Multicast IP L3 Multicast MAC
• Source IPs in multicast packets remain • Source IP is unicast
unicast. • Destination IP is Multicast
• The destination IPs represent the • The aim is to have the sender and
multicast group. receiver agree on a single, suitable
destination MAC.
• These destination Multicast IPs belong to • Every multicast group address (IP
a special class which is address) is mapped to a special MAC
Class D ([Link] to [Link]) address
• No concept of subnetting is used in • Special Reserve MAC [Link]
multicast communication
Mapping L3 TO L2
• To provide this a simple mapping procedure is used to generate a well-
known multicast MAC address which is the special MAC Address
([Link])
1. The first 24 bits of a multicast MAC address always start with [Link].
2. The 25th bit is always 0.
3. The remaining 23 bits of the multicast MAC address are copied from the lower
23 bits of the multicast group IP address.
An example for mapping on next page.
Mapping L3 TO L2
• Suppose we have this multicast address – [Link]
• So, the first 24 bit standard part will be – [Link]
• The next bit is going to be – 0
[Link] – 0000|0001 : 0000|0000 : 0101|1110
(This is the conversion of special MAC)
• Now we have this multicast address – [Link]
• So, we’ll convert the remaining 24 bits of this IP.
[Link] – 11100000.00000000.00000000.00000101
(This is the conversion Multicast IP) So, now we’ll use remaining 24 bits
Mapping L3 TO L2
[Link] – 11100000.00000000.00000000.00000101
So, the last 24 bits will be - 00000000.00000000.00000101
The green marked is the special 25th bit which is always 0
Now, the destination MAC will be – [Link]
Multicast Forwarding
• In unicast forwarding, the packets are guided towards a destination.
• In multicast forwarding, the packets are guided away from a source.
Two major interface types per multicast source
1. Upstream interface - closest to the source
2. Downstream interfaces - receivers
This entire concept is termed reverse path forwarding (RPF).
Multicast “Routes” – (S,G); (*, G)
• Multicast routing table stores and organizes information by multicast
groups (G) are called as forwarding states.
Each multicast group has a source –
Specific source (S)
Unknown source (*)
• The table is further organized by a combination of sources for the groups.
(S, G) - Forwarding mode with specific source
(*, G) - Forwarding mode with unknown source
IGMP Versions
• There are 3 versions available –
1. IGMP v1 – old version not used today.
2. IGMP v2 – common in most multicast networks.
3. IGMP v3 – used by source specific multicast
• Version differences on next page -
IGMP Versions
FEATURE IGMPv1 IGMPv2 IGMPv3
1st Octet value for Query message 0x11 0x11 0x11
Destination address for General query [Link] [Link] [Link]
Default Query Interval 60 sec 125 sec 125 sec
Can max response time be configured No , fixed at 10 sec Yes,0 to 25.5 sec Yes,0 to 53 min
Can a host send a leave group message No Yes Yes
Destination address for leave group - [Link] [Link]
message
IGMP v1 & v2 Messages
• Membership Report (from receivers to MC enabled router – for
joining a MC group)
• Leave Group (from receivers to MC enabled router – for leaving a
MC group – only in V2)
• Membership query (IGMP Hello – from MC enabled router to MC
receivers.
PIM – Protocol Independent Multicast
• PIM is a multicast routing protocol that routes multicast traffic
between network segments.
• PIM can use any of the unicast routing protocols to identify the
path between the source and receivers.
PIM Operating Modes -
1. PIM Dense Mode (PIM-DM)
2. PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM)
3. PIM Sparse Dense Mode
4. PIM Source Specific Multicast (PIM-SSM)
5. PIM Bidirectional Mode (Bidir-PIM)
Reserved Multicast Addresses
IP Multicast Address Description
[Link] Base address (reserved)
[Link] All hosts in this subnet (all-hosts group)
[Link] All routers in this subnet
[Link] All OSPF routers (AllSPFRouters)
[Link] All OSPF DRs (AllDRouters)
[Link] All RIPv2 routers
[Link] All EIGRP routers
[Link] All PIM routers
[Link] VRRP
[Link] IGMPv3
[Link] HSRPv2 and GLBP
[Link] NTP
[Link] Cisco-RP-Announce (Auto-RP)
[Link] Cisco-RP-Discovery (Auto-RP)