CS8591- COMPUTER

NETWORKS

UNIT III

NETWORK LAYER
SYLLABUS
 Routing - Unicast Routing – Algorithms –
Protocols – Multicast Routing and its basics –
Overview of Intradomain and interdomain
protocols – Overview of IPv6 Addressing –
Transition from IPv4 to IPv6
ROUTING
 In an internet, the goal of the network layer is to deliver a
datagram from its source to its destination or
destinations.
 If a datagram is destined for only one destination (one-
to-one delivery), we have unicast routing.
 If the datagram is destined for several destinations (one-
to-many delivery), we have multicast routing.
UNICAST ROUTING
 If a datagram is destined for only one destination (one-to-
one delivery)
 Unicast routing in the Internet, with a large number of
routers and a huge number of hosts, can be done only by
using hierarchical routing.
 Routing a packet from its source to its destination means
routing the packet from a source router (the default router
of the source host) to a destination router (the router
connected to the destination network).
 There are several routes that a packet can travel from the
source to the destination; what must be determined is which
route the packet should take.
AN INTERNET AS A GRAPH
 To find the best route, an internet can be modeled as a
graph.
 A graph is a set of nodes and edges (lines) that connect
the nodes.
 To model an internet as a graph, each router as a node
and each network between a pair of routers as an edge.
 An internet is, in fact, modeled as a weighted graph, in
which each edge is associated with a cost.
 If there is no edge between the nodes, the cost is infinity.
LEAST-COST ROUTING
 When an internet is modeled as a weighted graph, one of
the ways to interpret the best route from the source router
to the destination router is to find the least cost between
the two.
 In other words, the source router chooses a route to the
destination router in such a way that the total cost for the
route is the least cost among all possible routes.
 In Figure , the best route between A and E is A-B-E, with
the cost of 6.
 This means that each router needs to find the least-cost
route between itself and all the other routers to be able to
route a packet using this criteria.
LEAST-COST TREES
 If there are N routers in an internet, there are (N − 1) least-
cost paths from each router to any other router.
 This means we need N × (N − 1) least-cost paths for the
whole internet.
 If we have only 10 routers in an internet, we need 90 least-
cost paths.
 A better way to see all of these paths is to combine them in a
least-cost tree.
 A least-cost tree is a tree with the source router as the root
that spans the whole graph (visits all other nodes) and in
which the path between the root and any other node is the
shortest.
 In this way, we can have only one shortest-path tree for each
node; we have N least-cost trees for the whole internet.
UNICAST ALGORITHM
ROUTING ALGORITHMS
 The general idea behind least-cost trees and the
forwarding tables that can be made from them, now
we concentrate on the routing algorithms.
 Several routing algorithms have been designed as
follows:
 Distance-Vector Routing

 Link-State Routing

 Path-Vector Routing
DISTANCE-VECTOR ROUTING
 DVR goal is to find the best route.
 In distance-vector routing, the first thing each node
creates is its own least-cost tree with the rudimentary
information it has about its immediate neighbors.
 In distance-vector routing, a router continuously tells all
of its neighbors what it knows about the whole internet.
 Before we show how incomplete least-cost trees can be
combined to make complete ones, we need to discuss
two important topics:
 the Bellman-Ford equation and

 The concept of distance vectors,

BELLMAN-FORD EQUATION

 The heart of distance-vector routing is the famous

Bellman-Ford equation.
 This equation is used to find the least cost (shortest
distance) between a source node x, and a destination
node y through some intermediary nodes (a, b, c, . . .)
when the costs between the Source and the intermediary
nodes.
 The following shows the general case in which Dij is the
shortest distance and cij is the cost between nodes i and j.
CONT..
 In distance-vector routing, normally we want to update
an existing least cost with a least cost through an
intermediary node, such as z, if the latter is shorter. In
this case, the equation becomes simpler, as shown below:
DISTANCE VECTORS:
 The concept of a distance vector is the rationale
for the name distance-vector routing.
 A least-cost tree is a combination of least-cost
paths from the root of the tree to all destinations.
 These paths are graphically glued together to
form the tree.
 Distance-vector routing unglues these paths and
creates a distance vector, a one-dimensional
array to represent the tree.
CONT..
 After a node receives a distance vector from a neighbor,
it updates its distance vector using the Bellman-Ford
equation (second case).
 In the first event, node A has sent its vector to node B.
Node B updates its vector using the cost cBA = 2.
 After the first event, node B has one improvement in its
vector: its least cost to node D has changed from infinity
to 5 (via node A).
 In the second event, node E has sent its vector to node B.
Node B updates its vector using the cost cEA = 4.
 After the second event, node B has one more
improvement in its vector; its least cost to node F has
changed from infinity to 6 (via node E).
COUNT TO INFINITY

 A problem with distance-vector routing is that

any decrease in cost (good news) propagates
quickly, but any increase in cost (bad news) will
propagate slowly.
 The problem is referred to as count to infinity. It
sometimes takes several updates before the cost
for a broken link is recorded as infinity by all
routers.
DISTANCE-VECTOR ROUTING ALGORITHM
LINK-STATE ROUTING
 A routing algorithm that directly follows our discussion
for creating least-cost trees and forwarding tables is link-
state (LS) routing.
 This method uses the term link-state to define the
characteristic of a link (an edge) that represents a
network in the internet.
 In this algorithm the cost associated with an edge defines
the state of the link.
 Links with lower costs are preferred to links with higher
costs;
 if the cost of a link is infinity, it means that the link does
not exist or has been broken.
LINK-STATE DATABASE (LSDB)

 The collection of states for all links is called the link-

state database (LSDB).
 There is only one LSDB for the whole internet.
 Each node needs to have a duplicate of it to be able to
create the least-cost tree.
 The LSDB can be represented as a two-dimensional
array (matrix) in which the value of each cell defines the
cost of the corresponding link.
 Flooding is the process in which each node can send
some greeting messages to all its immediate neighbors
(those nodes to which it is connected directly) to collect
two pieces of information for each neighboring node.
 The identity of the node
 The cost of the link.
CONT..
 The combination of these two pieces of information is called
the LS packet (LSP). The LSP is sent out of each interface.
 When a node receives an LSP from one of its interfaces, it
compares the LSP with the copy it may already have. If the
newly arrived LSP is older than the one it has it discards the
LSP.
 If it is newer or the first one received, the node discards the
old LSP (if there is one) and keeps the received one.
 We can compare the link-state routing algorithm with the
distance-vector routing algorithm.
 In the distance-vector routing algorithm, each router tells its
neighbors what it knows about the whole internet;
 in the link-state routing algorithm, each router tells the whole
internet what it knows about its neighbors.
FORMATION OF LEAST-COST TREES
 To create a least-cost tree for itself, using the shared LSDB,
each node needs to run the famous Dijkstra Algorithm.
This iterative algorithm uses the following steps:
 1. The node chooses itself as the root of the tree, creating a
tree with a single node, and sets the total cost of each node
based on the information in the LSDB.
 2. The node selects one node, among all nodes not in the
tree, which is closest to the root, and adds this to the tree.
After this node is added to the tree, the cost of all other
nodes not in the tree needs to be updated because the paths
may have been changed.
 3. The node repeats step 2 until all nodes are added to the
tree. We need to convince ourselves that the above three
steps finally create the least-cost.
PATH-VECTOR ROUTING
 Both link-state and distance-vector routing are based on
the least-cost goal.
 The best route is determined by the source using the
policy it imposes on the route.
 In other words, the source can control the path.

 Although path-vector routing is not actually used in an

internet, and is mostly designed to route a packet
between ISPs.
 we discuss the principle of this method in this section as
though applied to an internet.
SPANNING TREES:

 In path-vector routing, the path from a source to all

destinations is also determined by the best spanning
tree.
 The best spanning tree, however, is not the least-cost
tree; it is the tree determined by the source when it
imposes its own policy.
 If there is more than one route to a destination, the
source can choose the route that meets its policy best.
 A source may apply several policies at the same time.
CREATION OF SPANNING TREES:

 Path-vector routing is an asynchronous and distributed

routing algorithm.
 The spanning trees are made, gradually and
asynchronously, by each node.
 When a node is booted, it creates a path vector based on
the information it can obtain about its immediate
neighbor.
 A node sends greeting messages to its immediate
neighbors to collect these pieces of information.
 Each node, after the creation of the initial path vector,
sends it to all its immediate neighbors.
CONT..
 Each node, when it receives a path vector from a
neighbor, updates its path vector using an equation
similar to the Bellman-Ford, but applying its own policy
instead of looking for the least cost.
 We can define this equation as
CONT..
 In the first event, node C receives a copy of B’s
vector, which improves its vector: now it knows
how to reach node A.
 In the second event, node C receives a copy of D’s
vector, which does not change its vector. As a
matter of fact the vector for node C after the first
event is stabilized and serves as its forwarding
table.
PATH-VECTOR ALGORITHM:
UNICAST PROTOCOLS
UNICAST ROUTING PROTOCOLS
 A protocol is more than an algorithm.
 A protocol needs to define its domain of operation,
the messages exchanged, communication between
routers, and interaction with protocols in other
domains.
 Three common protocols used in the Internet as
follows.
 Routing Information Protocol (RIP), based on the
Distance-Vector Algorithm
 Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), based on the
Link-State Algorithm
 Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), based on the
Path-Vector Algorithm
HIERARCHICAL ROUTING:
 Hierarchical routing means considering each ISP as
an autonomous system (AS).
 Each AS can run a routing protocol that meets its
needs, but the global Internet runs a global protocol
to glue all ASs together.
 The routing protocol run in each AS is referred to as
intra-AS routing protocol, intra domain routing
protocol, or interior gateway protocol (IGP).
 The global routing protocol is referred to as inter-AS
routing protocol, inter domain routing protocol, or
exterior gateway protocol (EGP).
 The two common intra domain routing protocols are
RIP and OSPF.
 The only inter domain routing protocol is BGP.
AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS:
 Each ISP is an autonomous system when it
comes to managing networks and routers under
its control.
 Each AS is given an autonomous number (ASN)
by the ICANN.
 Each ASN is a 16-bit unsigned integer that
uniquely defines an AS.
 The autonomous systems, however, are not
categorized according to their size; they are
categorized according to the way they are
connected to other ASs.
CONT..
 Stub AS: A stub AS has only one connection to another
AS.
 Multi homed AS: A multi homed AS can have more than
one connection to other ASs, but it does not allow
 Transient AS. A transient AS is connected to more than
one other AS and also allows the traffic to pass through.
data traffic to pass through it.
ROUTING INFORMATION PROTOCOL (RIP)
 The Routing Information Protocol (RIP) is one of the most
widely used intra domain routing protocols based on the
distance-vector routing algorithm.
 Hop Count

 First a router in an AS needs to know how to forward a

packet to different networks (subnets) in an AS, RIP routers
advertise the cost of reaching different networks instead of
reaching other nodes in a theoretical graph.
 Second, to make the implementation of the cost simpler ,the
cost is defined as the number of hops, which means the
number of networks (subnets) a packet needs to travel
through from the source router to the final destination host.
CONT..
 Note that the network in which the source host is
connected is not counted in this calculation because the
source host does not use a forwarding table.
 In RIP, the maximum cost of a path can be 15, which
means 16 is considered as infinity (no connection).
 For this reason, RIP can be used only in autonomous
systems in which the diameter of the AS is not more than
15 hops.
FORWARDING TABLES
 A forwarding table in RIP is a three-column table.
 The first column is the address of the destination
network.
 The second column is the address of the next router to
which the packet should be forwarded.
 The third column is the cost (the number of hops) to
reach the destination network.
 The first and the third columns together convey the same
information as does a distance vector, but the cost shows
the number of hops to the destination networks.
RIP IMPLEMENTATION:
 RIP is implemented as a process that uses the service of
UDP on the well-known port number 520.
 RIP is a daemon process (a process running in the
background), named routed (abbreviation for route daemon
and pronounced route-dee).
 This means that, although RIP is a routing protocol to help
IP route its datagrams through the AS, the RIP messages are
encapsulated inside UDP user datagrams, which in turn are
encapsulated inside IP datagrams.
 In other words, RIP runs at the application layer, but creates
forwarding tables for IP at the network later.
 RIP has gone through two versions: RIP-1 and RIP-2.

 The second version is backward compatible with the first

section;
RIP MESSAGES:

 Two RIP processes, a client and a server, like any other

processes, need to exchange messages.
 Part of the message, which we call entry, can be repeated
as needed in a message.
 Each entry carries the information related to one line in
the forwarding table of the router that sends the message.
 RIP has two types of messages: request and response.

 A request message is sent by a router that has just come

up or by a router that has some time-out entries.
 A request message can ask about specific entries or all
entries.
CONT..
A response (or update) message can be either
solicited or unsolicited.
 A solicited response message is sent only in answer
to a request message.
 It contains information about the destination
specified in the corresponding request message.
 An unsolicited response message, on the other hand,
is sent periodically, every 30 seconds or when there
is a change in the forwarding table.
MULTICAST ROUTING
PROTOCOLS
MULTICAST
 In multicasting, there is one source and a group
of destinations.
 The relationship is one to many.

 In this type of communication, the source address

is a unicast address, but the destination address
is a group address, a group of one or more
destination networks in which there is at least
one member of the group that is interested in
receiving the multicast datagram.
 The group address defines the members of the
group
MULTICAST APPLICATIONS

 Multicasting has many applications today, such

as access to distributed databases, information
dissemination, teleconferencing, and distance
learning.
 Access to Distributed Databases

 Information Dissemination

 Teleconferencing

 Distance Learning
BROADCASTING
 Broadcasting means one-to-all communication: a
host sends a packet to all hosts in an internet.
 Broadcasting in this sense is not provided at the
Internet level for the obvious reason that it may
create a huge volume of traffic and use a huge
amount of bandwidth.
 Partial broadcasting, however, is done in the
Internet.
MULTICASTING BASICS
 we need to discuss some multicasting basics:
 multicast addressing,

 collecting information about multicast groups,

 multicast optimal trees.

MULTICAST ADDRESSES
 A multicast address defines a group of recipients,
not a single one.
 In other words, a multicast address is an
identifier for a group.
 If a new group is formed with some active
members, an authority can assign an unused
multicast address to this group to uniquely define
it.
 This means that the source address of a packet in
multicast communication can be a unicast
address that uniquely defines the sender, but the
destination address can be the multicast address
that defines a group.
MULTICAST ADDRESSES IN IPV4
 A router or a destination host needs to distinguish
between a unicast and a multicast datagram.
 IPv4 and IPv6 each assign a block of addresses for
this purpose.
 In this section, we discuss only IPv4 multicast
addresses.
 Multicast addresses in IPv4 belong to a large block of
addresses that are specially designed for this purpose.
 In classful addressing, all of class D was composed of
these addresses; classless addressing used the same
block, but it was referred to as the block [Link]/4
(from [Link] to [Link]).
CONT..
 The number of addresses in the multicast block is
huge (228).
 We definitely cannot have that many individual
groups.
 However, the block is divided into several
subblocks, and each subblock is used in a
particular multicast application.
 The following gives some of the common
subblocks:
 Local Network Control Block.
 The subblock [Link]/24 is assigned to a
multicast routing protocol to be used inside a
network,
 Internetwork Control Block.
 The subblock [Link]/24 is assigned to a
multicast routing protocol to be used in the whole
Internet.
 Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) Block.
 The block [Link]/8 is used for sourcespecific
multicast routing.
 GLOP Block. The block [Link]/8 is called the
GLOP block.
 Administratively Scoped Block.
 The block [Link]/8 is called the
Administratively Scoped Block.
SELECTING MULTICAST ADDRESS
 To select a multicast address to be assigned to a
group is not an easy task. The selection of
address depends on the type of application.
 Limited Group
 The administrator can use the AS number
(x.y)256 and choose an address between 239.x.y.0
and 239.x.y.255 that is not used by any other
group, as the multicast address for that
particular group.
 Larger Group
 If the group is spread beyond an AS territory, the
previous solution does not work.
 The group needs to choose an address from the
SSM block ([Link]).
DELIVERY AT DATA-LINK LAYER
 In multicasting, the delivery at the Internet level
is done using network-layer multicast addresses
(IP addresses allocated for multicasting).
 However, data-link layer multicast addresses are
also needed to deliver a multicast packet
encapsulated in a frame.
NETWORK WITH MULTICAST SUPPORT
 Most LANs support physical multicast addressing.
 Ethernet is one of them.

 An Ethernet physical address (MAC address) is six

octets (48 bits) long.
 If the first 25 bits in an Ethernet address are 00000001
00000000 01011110 0, this identifies a physical multicast
address for the TCP/IP protocol.
 The remaining 23 bits can be used to define a group.
NETWORK WITH NO MULTICAST SUPPORT
 Most WANs do not support physical multicast
addressing.
 To send a multicast packet through these networks, a
process called tunneling is used.
 In tunneling, the multicast packet is encapsulated in a
unicast packet and sent through the network, where it
emerges from the other side as a multicast packet
COLLECTING INFORMATION ABOUT GROUPS

 Creation of forwarding tables in both unicast and

multicast routing involves two steps:
 1. A router needs to know to which destinations it is
connected.
 2. Each router needs to propagate information obtained
in the first step to all other routers so that each router
knows to which destination each other router is
connected.
 In unicast routing, the collection of the
information in the first step is automatic;
 Each router knows to which network it is
connected, and the prefix of the network (in
CIDR) is what a router needs.
 In multicast routing, the collection of information in the
first step is not automatic for two reasons.
 First, a router does not know which host in the attached
network is a member of a particular group; membership
in the group does not have any relation to the prefix
associated with the network.
CONT..
 In the case of unicasting, router R knows hosts with
prefixes N1, N2, and N3 are connected to its interfaces;
it propagates this information to the rest of the internet.
 In the case of multicasting, router R needs to know that
there are hosts with at least one loyal member in groups
G1, G2, and G3 in networks connected to its interfaces.
in multicasting we need two protocols:
 one to collect these pieces of information and the second
to propagate them.
 Collecting pieces of information is done by the Internet
Group Management Protocol (IGMP),
MULTICAST FORWARDING
 Forwarding in unicast and multicast
communication is different in two aspects:
 i)In unicast communication, the destination
address of the packet defines one single
destination.
 The packet needs to be sent only out of one of the
interfaces, the interface which is the branch in
the shortest-path tree reaching the destination
with the minimum cost.
 In multicast communication, the destination of
the packet defines
 one group, but that group may have more than
one member in the internet.
CONT..
 ii).Forwarding decisions in unicast
communication depend only on the destination
address of the packet.
 Forwarding decisions in multicast
communication depend on both the destination
and the source address of the packet.
TWO APPROACHES TO MULTICASTING
 In multicast routing, as in unicast routing, we
need to create routing trees to optimally route
the packets from their source to their destination.
 Two different approaches in multicast routing
have been developed:
 Routing using source-based trees

 Routing using group-shared trees

ROUTING USING SOURCE-BASED TREES
 In the source-based tree approach to multicasting, each
router needs to create a separate tree for each source-
group combination.
 In other words, if there are m groups and n sources in the
internet, a router needs to create (m × n) routing trees.
 In each tree, the corresponding source is the root, the
members of the group are the leaves, and the router itself
is somewhere on the tree.
 Although it may appear that each router needs to create
and store a huge amount of information about all of these
trees.
GROUP-SHARED TREE APPROACH
 In the group-shared tree approach, we designate a
router to act as the phony source for each group.
 The designated router, which is called the core router or
the rendezvouspoint router, acts as the representative for
the group.
 Any source that has a packet to send to a member of that
group sends it to the core center (unicast communication)
and the core center is responsible for multicasting.
 The core center creates one single routing tree with itself
as the root and any routers with active members in the
group as the leaves.
 In this approach, there are m core routers (one
for each group) and each core router has a
routing tree, for the total of m trees.
 This means that the number of routing trees is
reduced from (m × n) in the source-based tree
approach to m in this approach.
INTRADOMAIN MULTICAST
PROTOCOLS
 INTRODUCTION
• During the last few decades, several intradomain
multicast routing protocols have emerged.
• In this section, we discuss three of these protocols.
• Two are extensions of unicast routing protocols (RIP
and OSPF), using the source-based tree approach;
• The third is an independent protocol which is becoming
more and more popular.
• It can be used in two modes, employing either the
source-based tree approach or the shared-group tree
approach.
 Multicast Distance Vector (DVMRP)
• The Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol
(DVMRP) is the extension of the Routing
Information Protocol (RIP) which is used in
unicast routing.
• It uses the source based tree approach to
multicasting.
• It is worth mentioning that each router in this
protocol that receives a multicast packet to be
forwarded implicitly creates a source-based
multicast tree in three steps:
 Cont..
• 1. The router uses an algorithm called reverse path
forwarding (RPF) to simulate creating part of the
optimal source-based tree between the source and itself.
• 2. The router uses an algorithm called reverse path
broadcasting (RPB) to create a broadcast (spanning)
tree whose root is the router itself and whose leaves are
all networks in the internet.
• 3. The router uses an algorithm called reverse path
multicasting (RPM) to create a multicast tree by cutting
some branches of the tree that end in networks with no
member in the group
 Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF)

• The first algorithm, reverse path forwarding

(RPF), forces the router to forward a multicast
packet from one specific interface:
• The one which has come through the shortest
path from the source to the router.
 Reverse Path Broadcasting (RPB)
• The RPF algorithm helps a router to forward only
one copy received from a source and drop the
rest.
• However, when we think about broadcasting in
the second step, we need to remember that
destinations are all the networks (LANs) in the
internet.
• To be efficient, we need to prevent each network
from receiving more than one copy of the packet.
 Reverse Path Multicasting (RPM)
• As you may have noticed, RPB does not multicast the
packet, it broadcasts it.
• This is not efficient.
• To increase efficiency, the multicast packet must reach
only those networks that have active members for that
particular group.
• This is called reverse path multicasting (RPM).
• To change the broadcast shortest-path tree to a
multicast shortest-path tree, each router needs to
prune (make inactive) the interfaces that do not reach
a network with active members corresponding to a
particular source-group combination.
 Multicast Link State (MOSPF)
• Multicast Open Shortest Path First (MOSPF) is the
extension of the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF)
protocol, which is used in unicast routing.
• It also uses the source based tree approach to
multicasting.
• If the internet is running a unicast link-state routing
algorithm, the idea can be extended to provide a
multicast link-state routing algorithm.
• Recall that in unicast link-state routing, each router
in the internet has a link-state database (LSDB) that
can be used to create a shortest-path tree.
 STEPS
• The router uses the Dijkstra algorithm to create a
shortest-path tree with S as the root and all
destinations in the internet as the leaves.
• The router finds itself in the shortest-path tree
created in the first step.
• The shortest-path subtree is actually a broadcast
subtree with the router as the root and all
networks as the leaves.
• The router can now forward the received packet
out of only those interfaces that correspond to
the branches of the multicast tree.
Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM)
• Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is the
name given to a common protocol that needs a
unicast routing protocol for its operation, but the
unicast protocol can be either a distance-vector
protocol or a link-state protocol.
• In other words, PIM needs to use the forwarding
table of a unicast routing protocol to find the next
router in a path to the destination, but it does not
matter how the forwarding table is created.
• PIM has another interesting feature: it can work
in two different modes: dense and sparse.
 Cont..
• DENSE
• The term dense here means that the number of active
members of a group in the internet is large;
• the probability that a router has a member in a group
is high.
• SPARSE
• The term sparse, on the other hand, means that only a
few routers in the internet have active members in the
group;
• the probability that a router has a member of the
group is low.
• When the protocol is working in the dense
mode, it is referred to as PIM-DM;
• when it is working in the sparse mode, it is
referred to as PIM-SM.
 Protocol Independent Multicast-
Dense Mode (PIM-DM)
• When the number of routers with attached
members is large relative to the number of
routers in the internet, PIM works in the
dense mode and is called PIM-DM.
• In this mode, the protocol uses a source-based
tree approach and is similar to DVMRP, but
simpler.
• PIM-DM uses only two strategies described in
DVMRP: RPF and RPM
 Protocol Independent Multicast-
Sparse Mode (PIM-SM)
• When the number of routers with attached
members is small relative to the number of
routers in the internet, PIM works in the sparse
mode and is called PIM-SM.
• In this environment, the use of a protocol that
broadcasts the packets until the tree is pruned is
not justified;
• PIM-SM uses a group-shared tree approach to
multicasting.
• The core router in PIM-SM is called the
rendezvous point (RP).
INTERDOMAIN MULTICAST
PROTOCOLS
 INTRODUCTION
• The three protocols we discussed for multicast
routing, DVMRP, MOSPF, and PIM, are designed
to provide multicast communication inside an
autonomous system.
• When the members of the groups are spread
among different domains (ASs), we need an
interdomain multicast routing protocol.
• One common protocol for interdomain multicast
routing is called Multicast Border Gateway
Protocol (MBGP)
 CONT
• MBGP provides two paths between ASs: one
for unicasting and one for multicasting.
• Information about multicasting is exchanged
between border routers in different ASs.
• MBGP is a shared-group multicast routing
protocol in which one router in each AS is
chosen as the rendezvous point (RP).
 CONT..
• The problem with MBGP protocol is that it is
difficult to inform an RP about the sources of
groups in other ASs.
• The Multicast Source Discovery Protocol
(MSDP) is a new suggested protocol that
assigns a source representative router in each
AS to inform all RPs about the existence of
sources in that AS.
 CONT..
• Another protocol that is thought of as a
possible replacement for the MBGP is Border
Gateway Multicast Protocol (BGMP), which
allows construction of shared group trees with
a single root in one of the ASs.
• In other words, for each group, there is only
one shared tree, with leaves in different ASs,
but the root is located in one of the ASs.
 IGMP
• The protocol that is used today for collecting
information about group membership is the
Internet Group Management Protocol
(IGMP).
• IGMP is a protocol defined at the network
layer; it is one of the auxiliary protocols, like
ICMP, which is considered part of the IP.
• IGMP messages, like ICMP messages, are
encapsulated in an IP datagram.
 Messages
• There are only two types of messages in IGMP
version 3, query and report messages.
• A query message is periodically sent by a
router to all hosts attached to it to ask them
to report their interests about membership in
groups.
• A report message is sent by a host as a
response to a query message.
 Query Message

• The query message is sent by a router to all

hosts in each interface to collect information
about their membership.
• There are three versions of query messages,
as described below:
• a. A general query message is sent about
membership in any group.
• It is encapsulated in a datagram with the
destination address [Link]
 CONT..
• b. A group-specific query message is sent from
a router to ask about the related to a specific
group.
• c. A source-and-group-specific query message
is sent from a router to ask about the
membership related to a specific group when
the message comes from a specific source or
sources.
 Report Message
• A report message is sent by a host as a response to a
query message.
• The message contains a list of records in which each
record gives the identifier of the corresponding group
(multicast address) and the addresses of all sources
that the host is interested in receiving messages from
(inclusion).
• The record can also mention the source addresses from
which the host does not desire to receive a group
message.
• The message is encapsulated in a datagram with the
multicast address [Link].
 Propagation of Membership
Information
• After a router has collected membership
information from the hosts and other routers at
its own level in the tree, it can propagate it to the
router located in a higher level of the tree.
• Finally, the router at the tree root can get the
membership information to build the multicast
tree.
• The process, however, is more complex than
what we can explain in one paragraph.
• Interested readers can check the book website
for the complete description of this protocol.
 Encapsulation

• The IGMP message is encapsulated in an IP

datagram with the value of the protocol field
set to 2 and the TTL field set to 1.
• The destination IP address of the datagram.