Multicast

Mulicast is an efficient way of delivering media to many hosts over a single IP flow.

unicast, BW is shared
muliticast: Very efficient only one copy
Broadcast:Network congestioin, unnecessary terminals will also listen.

Examples of Multicast:
1. PC imaging softwares which allows image distribution through multicast
2. Routing protocols such as ospf,eigrp uses mutlicast for neighbor discovery.
3. Shared whiteboard applications.
4. Internet Radio.

Facts about multicast:

1. All multicast communication uses UDP, no windowing and ack. (multicast application have to handle the error
itself)
2. Addressing in multicast uses the class D range. 224.0.0.0- 239.255.255.255
3. Workstation using the multicast applications subscribe to the Servers multicast address.

Multicast Address:
• The entire range 224.0.0.0 is reserved by IANA.

Some well known multicast address:

• 224.0.0.1:All multicast system on this subnet
• 224.0.0.2:All multicast router on this subnet
• 224.0.0.5: All ospf routers.
• 224.0.0.6:All ospf DR
• 224.0.0.9: RIPv2 routes
• 224.0.0.10: EIGRP

Other key multicast address:

Global Range:
• 224.0.1.0-238.255.255.255
• supposed to work on the Internet
Designed to be assigned dynamically.

Private range:
• 239.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255
• designed for private use
• can be assigned statically.
Explaining the Multicast Group Concepts:
Multicast traffic may be used to send same data packets to multiple receivers. By sending the data packets to
multiple receivers, the packets are not duplicated for every receiver but are sent in a single stream, where
downstream routers perform packet multiplication over receiving links when necessary.

Fig:mulicast1.

Simulcast: simultaneous delivery for a group of receivers. it is used for many purposes like audio and video
streaming, news and similar data delivery and deploying software upgrades.

Unicast Vs. Multicast:

Fig:multicast:2
• unicast traffic sends multiple copies of data, one copy for each receiver
• Mutlicast tranmission sends a single copy of data to multiple receiver. The data is sent to the multicast receiver
because they are previously subscribe to it.
• Downstream multicast routers replicate and forward the data packet to all the branches where there may be
receivers.

Mulitcast advantages and disadvantages:

adv.
a. Enhanced Efficiency:BW is saved , multiple streams of data is replaced with single transmission.
b. Optimised performance.
c. distributed applications.

disadv.

Mulicast is UDP.

Types of multicast applications:

1.one-to-many: Where one senders sends data to multiple receivers. This type of application is used for
audio/video distribution, push media announcement.

2. many-to-one: Where many receivers are sending data back to the receiver. used by financial applications
and network users.
3. many-to-many: Where a host can be a sender and receiver.

Examples of mulitcast applications:

• Live TV and radio broadcast to the Desktop.
• Corporate Broadcast
• Distance Learning
• Multicast file transfer data and file replication.
• Video on Demand
• Whiteboard collaboration
• Real time data delivery
• Video conferencing

Basic Multicast address:

for IPv4 all class D block is used for multicast block.
224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255
Multicast address Group:

1. Reserved Locally scoped(Link local):

224.0.0.0 - 224.0.0.255
reserved by IANA for network protocol use. Multicast add. in this range are never forwarded off the local
network.

2. Globally Scope:
Allocated dynamically throughout the Internet. 224.0.1.0 - 238.255.255.255.
224.2.X.X range is used for Mulicast Backbone (MBone) applications. MBone is a collection of multicast router
that is used to sent private and public audio and video programs.
3. Limited(Administratively scope):
reserved for private use inside the org. similar to the private IPv4 address space.
239.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255.

Multicast Addressing:

System at layer 2 recognizes the multicast traffic because each IP address is mapped to a 48-bit MAC address.
The first 24 bits of the MAC address (The OUI) is always begin with 0100.5e and 25th bit is always 0. The lower
23 bits of the Multicast MAC addresses are copied from the far right 23 bits of the multicast IP address.

5 bits of the IP are remaining to map so there is possibility that multiple multicast ip exists for same Muliticast
MAC.

Multicast Session:
Whenever a receiver starts the muliticast application, it has to know which multicast group to join. The
application has to know about the available multicast sessions. There are several ways that an applications
know about the multicast session.
1. Joins a pre-defined multicast session on which announcement is made.
2. applications contacts an appropriate directory server.
3. By entering the IP address.
4. Application is launched from the web page.

SD (session directory) applications acts as a guide and displays multicast content. A client application runs on
PC and lets the user know what content is available.
This directory application uses either SDP (session description protocol) or Session announcement protocol.

IGMP:Internet Group management protocol

Has evolved thru three versions.
1,2 and 3.
Broadcast and Multicast are never a source address.

not all devices want to receive the multicast traffic, there are some of the protocols that are used to forward the
packets to only destination that want to receive it. There are various ways to accomplish it.
1. Manaul MAC entries
2. CGMP (cisco group management protocol)
3. IGMP

IGMP is a host-to-router protocol used when hosts wants to join a multicast group.

IGMP-v1:
A host dynamically sends a membership report IGMP message to its local router to join a multicast group.
• routers send periodic membership queries to the multicast address 224.0.0.1
• Hosts send membership report the group they want to join.
• Hosts silently leave the multicast group.
• Router age our a multicast group if no membership reports are received for three consecutive query interval (3
minutes).
• Every 60 secs. one router(the querier) on each network segment sends a query to all the hosts address
(224.0.0.1) to see if there is at least one host still interested in receiving the multicast group.

IGMP-v2:
Improvements over IGMP-V1.
• Group-specific queries
• Leave group message
• Querier election mechanism
• Query-interval response time

• Membership query is multicast to all hosts 224.0.0.1 while Group-specific query is multicast to the group
multicast address.
• In IGMP host leave explicitly by sending a leave message.
• members joining a multicast group doesn't have to wait for a query to join.
• When a host decides to leave a group it has joined, it sends a Leave Group messge to the all-router address
(224.0.0.2).

IGMP-v2 Leaving a group:

Fig: Multicast3

• Host H2 leaves the group and announces the departure by sending a leave message to the mulitcast group
224.0.0.2 (All mulitcast routers).
• Router-rtr-a sends a group specific query to 224.1.1.1 to see if any other group members are present.
• Host H3 has not left the mulitcast group 224.1..1.1 yet, therefore it responds with a report message.

Router# show ip igmp group

querier election process:

IGMP-V3
• builds on IGMP-v2 and support for multicast source filtering, i.e it allow hosts to indicate that they want to
receive traffic only from the particular sources within a multicast group.
• In IGMPv3 reports are sent to 224.0.0.22 rather than 224.0.0.2

Verifying IGMP versions:

Router# show ip igmp interface
(This command shows which igmp version is running on interfaces)
on interfaces where PIM is configured IGMP-v2 is enabled by default. To change the ver.
switch(config-if)# ip igmp version {1 | 2 | 3}
Multicast in Layer-2 Switching environement:
• typical L2 switches treat multicast traffic as unknown or broadcast and must flood the frame to every port.
• Three ways:
∘ static MAC entries
∘ CGMP
∘ IGMP snooping

CGMP (cisco group management protocol):

• based on client server model. Router is CGMP server and switch is CGMP client.
• Router informs the switch about the information contained in the IGMP packets after it receives from the IGMP
message from the hosts.
• CGMP packets are sent from router to switch at multicast address: 0100.0cdd.dddd
• CGMP packets contains:
∘ Type field: Join or leave
∘ MAC address of the IGMP client.
∘ Multicast address of the group.
• Switches use the CGMP packet information to add or remove entry for a particular multicast MAC address.

The basis of CGMP is that the IP multicast router sees all IGMP packets and informs the switch when specific
hosts join or leave multicast groups. Routers use well-known CGMP multicast MAC addresses to send CGMP
control packets to the switch. The switch then uses this information to program the forwarding table.

IGMP snooping:

• switches become IGMP aware and listen in on the IGMP conversation between hosts and router.
• IGMP packets are intercepted by the CPU or by special hardware ASICS.
• Switch must be layer 3 aware.
• IGMP snooping is enabled by default. (can be manually enabled by ip igmp snooping command)
• Effects on switch:
∘ Must process all layer2 multicast packets.
∘ Requires special hardware to maintain throughput.

S# show ip igmp snooping vlan 6

Multicast Routing Protocol:

IP multicast traffice must be routed but with different logic. Unicast routing packets are destined for a single
interface whereas multicast IP packets can have many destination interfaces.
Several routing protocol exists such as Multicast OSPF(MOSPF),distance vector multicast routing.

CCNP only focuses on PIM.

Protocols used in Multicast:
Multicast distribution tree define the path from the source to the receiver over which the multicast traffic flows.

Distribution Trees:
The path used in multicast routing are called distribution tree and there are two types of multicast distribution
tree:
• Source Trees
• Shared Trees
Source Trees:
• A separate tree is built for each source to all members of its group.
• Takes shortest path from the source to receiver so also called SPT.(Shortest path tree).
• Each source/group requires its own state information, so can stress the router in terms of storage capability in
case of large groups/sources.
• Also ref. to as Source-based tree or source-root trees.
• Complicated but efficient in terms of BW usage.

Fig: multicast 4 & 5.

Shared Trees:
• creates a multicast forwarding path that rely on a central core router that serves as a Rendezvous Point (RP)
between multicast sources and destinations.
• Efficient in terms of router resources
• Sources initially send their multicast packets to the RP, which in turn forwards data through a shared tree to
the members of the group

Fig:Multicast 6 & 7.

Mutlicast distribution Tree identifications:

(S,G) entries:
• For this particular source sending to this particular group.
• Traffic is forwarded via the shortest path.
• Typically appear in SPT but may also appear in shared tree.
• Takes more router memory since there is any entry for each sender and group pair.
• In spite of memory it uses the optimal paths.

(*,G) entries:
• for any source sending to this group.
• Traffic is forwarded via a meeting point for this group.
• Uses less memory,but may get the sub-optimal paths from a source to receiver thus extra delay.
• Generally reflect the shared trees.

Multicast Routing: (Works on the opposite way of unicast routing)

• In unicast routing where to forward the packets depends on destination address.
• In multicast routing where to forward the packets depends on where the packet came from.
• Multicast router must know the origin rather than destinations.
• With multicast origination: ip address denotes the known source, and the destination IP address denotes a
group of unknown receivers.
• Mutlicast routing uses the RPF to prevent forwarding loops and to ensure the shortest path between source
and receivers.

Reverse Path Forwarding(RPF):

• RPF test is done on every multicast packet they receive.
• Checks to make sure that traffic flows from the root of the tree- from the source towards the recipients.

Two types of mulitcast routing protocols:

1. Dense mode protocols
2. Sparse mod protocols

1. Dense mode: (Source Tree like RIP)

• It assumes that all hosts on all links are interested in the traffic and so floods multicast out all paths.
• Prune the flows where there are no receivers using a periodic flood-and-prune mechanism.

2. Sparse mode: (Shared Tree)

• It assumes that no one wants the mulitcast traffic until they ask for it.

PIM
PIM(protocol Independent Multicast) is a routing protocol that can be used for forwarding multicast traffic
between IP subnets or network segments.
PIM can operate in three modes:
1. PIM Dense mode
2. PIM Sparse mode
3. PIM sparse-dense mode

1. PIM Dense mode:

• source tree based
• configured to this mode if it is safe to assume that a multicast group's recipient are located on every subnet i.e
multicast group is densely populated across the network.
• floods traffic out all non RPF interfaces.
• if no hosts have registered (via IGMP) for the multicast group with the router, the router sends a Prune
message to the source.
2 .PIM Sparse mode:
• shared tree based
• used RP to coordinate the forwarding of traffic from the source to receivers.

configurations:

Router(config)# ip multicast-routing
Router(config-if)# ip pim {dense-mode | sparse-mode | sparse-dense-mode }

Router(config_# ip pim send-rp-announce {interface-type } scope {ttl} group-list {acl}

Router# show ip mroute

1. show ip pim interface

2. show ip pim neighbor
3. mrinfo [hostname | address ]
4. show ip pim interface detail
5. show ip pim rp
6. show ip pim rp mapping
7. show ip rpf ip.
8. show ip igmp snooping
9. show mac-address-table multicast
10. show ip igmp interface fa0/0
11. show ip igmp groups

LAB1.

R----S----------R

debug ip igmp
debug ip packet

R1(config)int fa1/0
# ip igmp join-group 229.7.7.7
R2(config-if)# ip igmp join-group 229.7.7.7

Now ping from R3, R3#ping 229.7.7.7

you can get the reply from 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2.

R(config-if)# no ip igmp join-group 229.7.7.7

Note that the IGMPv2 leave messages are sent to 224.0.0.2, the link-local multicast group representing all
routers on the subnet.

Configure the mutlicast enabled router on the VLAN

R(config)# ip multicast-routing
R(config-if)# ip pim dense-mode

• PIM attempts to make adjacencies out interfaces on which it is enabled. The multicast packet to 224.0.0.13
equates with a PIM Hello packet to all PIM- enabled routers on the subnet.
• Next, IGMP sends the initial IGMP query to the multicast group referencing all devices on the subnet 224.0.0.1
• All PIM routers automatically subscribe to the 224.0.1.40 group. Therefore, R1 sends an IGMP join message
on its Fast Ethernet interface for the 224.0.1.40 group. Then, R1 receives its own message and implicitly joins its
Fast Ethernet interface to the group

Switch# show mac address-table multicast

• SW1(config)# ip igmp snooping vlan 1 static 0100.5e07.0707 interface fastethernet 0/9

• R# show ip mroute

Lab:2

switched virtual interface (SVI)

TCL script in router:

PIM has two mode dense and sparse. dense is used when there are many subscriber in the subnet(hence the
name dense). and sparse mode is used when there are not many mutlicast subscriber in the subnet

R# show ip pim interface detail

show the DR elected in the IGMP network .

Densed mode : Source Tree

Sparse mode: Shared Tree

TO DO:
1. Reverse Path Forwarding:
2. Enabling IGMP (Enabled by default, can be manually done ip igmp snooping
3. RP ip configuraiton :TestKing2(config)# ip pim rp-address 10.10.10.1
4.