Broadcast and Multicast Routing
• In broadcast routing, the network layer provides a service of
delivering a packet sent from a source node to all other nodes in the
network.
• multicast routing enables a single source node to send a copy of a
packet to a subset of the other network nodes.
Multicast service - in which a multicast packet is delivered to only a subset of network nodes.
• A number of emerging network applications require the delivery of packets
from one or more senders to a group of receivers.
1. Bulk data transfer (for example, the transfer of a software upgrade from the
software developer to users needing the upgrade),
2. Streaming continuous media (for example, the transfer of the audio,
video, and text of a live lecture to a set of distributed lecture participants),
3. Shared data applications (for example, a whiteboard or teleconferencing
application that is shared among many distributed participants),
4. Data feeds (for example, stock quotes),
5. Web cache updating, and interactive gaming
• In multicast communication, there are two problems —
1. How to identify the receivers of a multicast packet and
2. How to address a packet sent to these receivers.
• In the case of unicast communication, the IP address of the receiver
(destination) is carried in each IP unicast datagram and identifies the
single recipient;
• In the case of broadcast communication, all nodes need to receive the
broadcast packet, so no destination addresses are needed.
• Multicast packet is addressed using address indirection.
• That is, a single identifier is used for the group of receivers, and a copy
of the packet that is addressed to the group using this single identifier is
delivered to all of the multicast receivers associated with that group.
• In the Internet, the single identifier that represents a group of receivers is a
class D multicast IP address.
• The group of receivers associated with a class D address is referred
to as a multicast group.
• Here, four hosts are associated with the multicast group address of
[Link] and will receive all datagrams addressed to that multicast
address.
• While the multicast group abstraction is simple, it raises a set of questions.
1. How does a group get started and how does it terminate?
2. How is the group address chosen?
3. How are new hosts added to the group (either as senders or receivers)?
4. Can anyone join a group (and send to, or receive from, that group) or
is group membership restricted and, if so, by whom?
5. Do group members know the identities of the other group
members as part of the network-layer protocol?
6. How do the network nodes interoperate with each other to deliver a
multicast datagram to all group members?
• For the Internet, the answers to all of these questions involve
the Internet Group Management Protocol.
Internet Group Management Protocol
(IGMP)
• The IGMP protocol version 3 operates between a host and its directly attached
router.
• IGMP provides the means for a host to inform its attached router that an
application running on the host wants to join a specific multicast group.
• IGMP messages are carried (encapsulated) within an IP datagram, with an IP
protocol number of 2.
• IGMP has only three message types:- membership_ query message,
membership_report message, leave_group message.
• The membership_query message is sent by a router to all hosts on an
attached interface (for example, to all hosts on a local area network) to
determine the set of all multicast groups that have been joined by the hosts on
that interface.
• Hosts respond to a membership_ query message with an IGMP
membership_report message. membership_report messages can also be
generated by a host when an application first joins a multicast group without
waiting for a membership_querymessage from the router.
• The final type of IGMP message is the leave_group message.
• This message is optional. But if it is optional, how does a router detect
when a host leaves the multicast group?
• The answer to this question is that the router infers that a host is no longer
in the multicast group if it no longer responds to a membership_query
message with the given group address.
• This is an example of what is sometimes called soft- state in an Internet
protocol
FLOODING
• The most obvious technique for achieving broadcast is a flooding approach in
which the source node sends a copy of the packet to all of its neighbors.
• When a node receives a broadcast packet, it duplicates the packet and
forwards it to all of its neighbors (except the neighbor from which it
received the packet).
• Clearly, if the graph is connected, this scheme will eventually deliver a copy of
the broadcast packet to all nodes in the graph.
• This is called Uncontrolled Flooding.
• This broadcast storm, resulting from the endless multiplication of
broadcast packets, would eventually result in so many broadcast
packets being created that the network would be rendered useless.
• The key to avoiding a broadcast storm is for a node to judiciously
choose when to flood a packet and (e.g., if it has already received and
flooded an earlier copy of a packet) when not to flood a packet.