MODULE 3-
Introduction to multicast routing,
Challenges in multicast routing,
Multicast routing protocols: MAODV,
MULTICAST ROUTING ODMRP, PIM. Comparison of multicast
routing protocols, Performance metrics
for multicast routing.
INTRODUCTION TO
MULTICAST ROUTING
Ad- hoc networks find applications in civilian operations,
emergency search- & -rescue, warfare etc.
Here communication and coordination among a given set of nodes
is necessary.
Multicast routing protocols play an important role in ad hoc
networks to provide this communication.
In wired network, routing tree( or spanning tree) approach is used.
Once the tree is established, a packet sent to all nodes in the tree
traverse each node and each link in the tree only once.
This approach is not suitable for ad-hoc …. Why ?
In ad-hoc networks the tree could easily break due to the highly
dynamic topology.
This also leads to huge control traffic… ie. Control overhead and
processing overhead as it leads to frequent exchange of routing
vectors or link state tables.
Increased buffering time for packets, high packet losses, increased
retransmissions.
CHALLENGES IN
MULTICAST ROUTING
Limited B.W availability
Error prone broadcast channel
Mobility of nodes with limited energy resources
Hidden terminal problem
Limited security
ISSUES
1. Robustness:
Due to mobility of nodes link failures are common.
Data packets sent by source are dropped – low packet delivery
ratio
A multicast routing protocol should be robust enough to sustain
the mobility of nodes and achieve high packet delivery ratio.
2. Efficiency:
Multicast efficiency is defined as the ratio of total number of data
packets received by the receiver to the total number od data
packets transmitted in the network
3. Control Overhead:
Multicast protocols should ensure that the total number of control packets
transmitted for maintaining the multicast group is kept to a minimum
4. Quality of Service:
Throughput, delay, jitter and reliability.
5. Dependency on the unicast routing protocol:
It is desirable if the multicast routing protocol is independent of any specific
unicast routing protocol.
6. Resource management:
It should use minimum power by reducing the number of packet
transmissions.
MULTICAST ROUTING
PROTOCOLS: MAODV
MULTICAST AD HOC ON-DEMAND DISTANCE VECTOR (MAODV)
Extension of AODV protocol.
MAODV uses sequence numbers to ensure that the most recent
route to the multicast group is used.
TREE INITIALIZATION PHASE
Group leader- updates sequence nos. periodically and broadcasts it using
GROUP HELLOS (GRPHs).
Group leader is the first node to join the group.
Other nodes who wish to join the group
If they have the address of the Group Leader then they unicast a route request (RREQ) to the
group leader
If they do not have address of the Group Leader then they broadcast the RREQ packet.
RREQ is rebroadcasted by nodes which are not the members of the multicast
tree.
RREQ is answered with a Route Reply (RREP)by member of the multicast group.
RREP contains the distance of the replying node from the group leader and the
current sequence number of the multicast group, is unicast to the requesting
node.
Only those nodes which have recorded a sequence number
greater than that in RREQ packet can reply.
The receiver node selects the most recent and shortest path from
all the RREPs it receives and sends a Multicast Activation (MACT)
message
MACT confirms to the intermediate relaying nodes that they are
part of the tree.
EXPLANATION OF THE
FIGURE
Say R3 wants to request to join the group to the group leader S.
So it sends a multicast RREQ request and waits for reply from S, I1
or R2.
If it receives from I1 RREP, then it sends a MACT control packet and
thus joins the tree.
ADVANTAGES OF MAODV
[Link] is integration of unicast and multicast into a unified framework
2. Information sharing takes place and hence it helps in reducing
control overhead.
3. It is free from all loops.
DISADVANTAGES OF MAODV
1. Poor packet delivery under mobility, congestion along links in the
tree.
2. The shared tree concept is not efficient when the number of
multicast sessions is high.
3. In case of single point failure of the group leader, all the
multicast sessions in progress will be severely affected.
MAODV PROTOCOL
IMPLEMENTED ON NS3
[Link]
ODMRP:
ON DEMAND MULTICAST ROUTING
PROTOCOL
A mesh is formed by a set of nodes called forwarding nodes which
are responsible for forwarding data packets between a source-
receiver pair.
These forwarding nodes maintain the message-cache which is
used to detect duplicate data packets and duplicate JoinReq control
packets.
MESH INITIALIZATION PHASE
A multicast mesh is formed between the sources and the
receivers.
Each source in the multicast group floods the JoinReq control
packet periodically.
Potential receivers can send the JoinReply through the reverse
shortest path.
The route is established after the source receives the JoinReply
packet.
For initializing the mesh, sources S1 and S2 in the multicast group flood the JoinReq
control packets.
The nodes that receive a JoinReq control packet store the upstream node identification
number (ID) and broadcast the packet again.
When receivers R1, R2 and R3 receive the JoinReq control packets, each node sends a
JoinReply control packet along the reverse path to the source.
In fig., receiver R2 receives JoinReq control packets from sources S1 and S2 through
paths S1-I2-I3-R2 and S2-I6-I4-I5-R2, respectively.
The JoinReply packet contains the source ID and the corresponding next node ID.
When node I2 receives the JoinReply control packet from receiver R1, it sets a forwarding
flag and becomes the forwarding node for that particular multicast group.
After waiting for a specified time, it composes a new JoinReply packet and forwards it.
The format of the JointReply packet sent by the node R2 is shown below.
ADVANTAGES OF ODMRP
1. It exhibits robusteness
DISADVANTAGES OF ODMRP
1. High control overhead
2. Same data packet propagates through more than one path to a
destination node, resulting in increased packet transmissions,
thereby reducing efficiency.
PIM
Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is a multicast routing protocol that can be used for ad-hoc
networks:
How it works ?
PIM sends traffic from a single source to multiple destinations across a network. It uses a tree-like
structure to find the best path for data delivery, which helps conserve bandwidth and resources.
Features
PIM is flexible and can adapt to different network environments, including complex topologies and
dynamic changes. It can also work with various unicast routing protocols, which improves network
scalability.
Modes
PIM has several modes, including PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM), PIM Dense Mode (PIM-DM), and PIM Bi-
directional:
PIM-SM: Works by only forwarding multicast traffic when requested. Routers along the path determine
if there is a better path to the source, and reroute traffic if needed.
PIM-DM: Floods multicast traffic for all groups out of all enabled interfaces.
PIM Bi-directional: Builds bidirectional shared trees, which is suitable for complex network designs.
What is the PIM Protocol?
PIM Protocol, which stands for Protocol Independent Multicast, is a multicast routing
protocol used in computer networks to route data packets to multiple recipients
efficiently. It is an adaptive and scalable protocol that supports multicast routing on
a variety of network topologies, including LANs, WANs, and the Internet.
PIM is called protocol-independent because it does not depend on any specific
unicast routing protocol for topology discovery. Instead, it uses the existing unicast
routing table to perform reverse path forwarding (RPF) checks, which prevent loops
and flooding in the network. RPF checks to ensure that a multicast packet is
forwarded only if it arrives on the interface with the shortest path to the packet’s
source.
PIM Protocol is not a single protocol but a collection of protocols that operate in
different modes:
•PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM)
•PIM Dense Mode (PIM-DM)
•PIM Bidirectional (Bidir-PIM)
•PIM Source-Specific Multicast (PIM-SSM)
How Does PIM Protocol Works?
PIM Protocol works by building distribution trees or multicast routing trees
that connect the sources and the receivers of a multicast group. A
distribution tree is a path through the network used to deliver multicast
data. There are two types of distribution trees: source trees and shared
trees.
Source Tree
A source tree is a tree that has its root at the source of the multicast data.
It represents the shortest path from the source to each receiver and thus
minimizes the latency in the network. However, it also requires more state
information to be maintained by the routers, as they need to know the
addresses of all sources for each group.
Shared Tree
A shared tree is a tree that has its root at a common point, called a
rendezvous point (RP). It does not depend on the location of the
sources or the receivers and thus reduces the state information
required by the routers. However, it may not provide the optimal
path for data delivery, as it may introduce extra hops or detours.
PIM is a protocol that allows devices to receive multicast data from specific
groups. It works in three steps:
[Link] group joining: A device that wants to get data from a group
sends a message to nearby routers, saying, “I want to join this group.”
[Link] tree building: Routers use PIM Protocol to decide the best way
to send multicast data from the sender to the receiver. This creates a
multicast tree.
[Link] delivery: After the multicast tree is built, data can flow along the
tree from the source (sender) to the destination (receiver). This avoids
sending data to the whole network and saves bandwidth. PIM has different
modes of operation.
PIM Protocols
In this section, we will briefly describe each PIM protocol and how it
operates.
PIM Dense Mode
PIM Dense Mode (PIM-DM) is a protocol that uses dense multicast routing. It
assumes that most nodes in the network are interested in receiving
multicast data from any source. It implicitly builds source trees by flooding
multicast traffic domain-wide and then pruning back branches of the tree
where no receivers are present. This way, it can quickly establish multicast
forwarding without requiring any prior knowledge of the sources or the
receivers.
For example, if a company’s internal network wants to broadcast live video
conference signals to offices across the company, it can use PIM-DM. Since
most offices need this service, PIM-DM sends the message everywhere and
then cuts off the unnecessary parts to optimize delivery. Below, we have
shown it with the help of an image.
PIM Sparse Mode
PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) is a protocol that uses sparse multicast routing.
It assumes that only a few nodes in the network are interested in receiving
multicast data from any source. It explicitly builds unidirectional shared
trees rooted at a rendezvous point (RP) per group and optionally creates
shortest-path trees per source. This way, it can avoid sending data to nodes
that do not want it and reduce the state information required by the routers.
PIM-SM operates in two phases: join and prune. In the join phase, routers
that have receivers for a multicast group send join messages to the RP to
indicate their interest in receiving data. The RP then discovers the sources
for the group and forwards the data to the joined routers along the shared
tree. In the pruning phase, routers that do not have receivers for a multicast
group send prune messages to the RP to indicate their disinterest in
receiving data. The RP then stops forwarding the data to the pruned
routers.
PIM-SM also allows routers to switch from the shared tree to a source tree if
they want to receive data from a specific source more efficiently. This is
done by sending join messages to the source and pruning messages to the
RP. This process is called source-specific join or shortest-path tree (SPT)
switchover.
Bidirectional PIM
Bidirectional PIM (Bidir-PIM) is a protocol that explicitly builds shared
bidirectional trees. It does not use source-specific state or RPF checks and
thus simplifies multicast routing. It never builds a shortest-path tree so that
it may have longer end-to-end delays than PIM-SM, but it scales well because
it needs no source-specific state.
Bidir-PIM operates in a similar way as PIM-SM, except that it uses a
designated forwarder (DF) election mechanism to select one router per link
to forward data on the shared tree. The DF is responsible for sending data
from the sources on the link to the RP and receiving data from the RP to the
receivers on the link. The DF election is based on the unicast routing metrics
and the priority of the routers.
Bidir-PIM is suitable for applications that involve many-to-many
communication, such as video conferencing or collaborative work.
PIM Source-Specific Multicast
PIM Source-Specific Multicast (PIM-SSM) is a variant of PIM-SM that builds
trees that are rooted in just one source per group. It offers a more secure
and scalable model for a limited number of applications, mostly
broadcasting of content. In SSM, an IP datagram is transmitted by a source
to an SSM destination address, and receivers can receive this datagram by
subscribing to the channel.
PIM-SSM operates in a similar way as PIM-SM, except that it does not
use an RP or a shared tree. Instead, it uses IGMPv3 or MLDv2 to allow
receivers to specify the source address when joining a group. It then
builds a source tree from the source to each receiver using join
messages.
COMPARISON OF MULTICAST
ROUTING PROTOCOLS
PERFORMANCE METRICS
FOR MULTICAST ROUTING.