Networking Fundamentals

Kobi Levy, March 2012

Agenda

Why Multicast? Multicast VS Unicast

Multicast forwarding
IGMPv1 vs IGMPv2 IGMP Snooping

Why Multicast?

Used when sending same data to multiple receivers Better bandwidth utilization

Less host/router processing

Used when receivers addresses unknown Used when simultaneous delivery for a group of receivers is required (simulcast)

Multicast Vs Unicast

Pure Unicast: Send the same copy of data multiple times Web Technologies: Webcastingpush the same data to multiple destinations

Traditionally, receivers subscribed to data and pulled it down

periodically

The underlying transport for those Technologies has been Unicast

Multicast Vs Unicast

Unicast

Host
Router

Host Router

Multicast Vs Unicast

The sender (source) sends one copy of a single packet addressed to a group of
receivers - multicast group

Multicast routers replicate and forward the packet to all the branches where
receivers (may) exist

Receivers express their interest in multicast traffic by sending control messages

to routers

Multicast advantages

Enhanced Efficiency: Controls network traffic and reduces server and CPU loads Optimized Performance: Eliminates traffic redundancy Distributed Applications: Makes multipoint applications possible
Example: Audio Streaming All clients listening to the same 8-Kbps audio

Multicast Unicast 0.8 Traffic 0.4 Mbps 0.2 0 0.6

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Multicast advantages

Fewer resources required bandwidth and host processing power (at sender) Almost simultaneous delivery is assured (one packet is simultaneously
forwarded across the networks)

Foundation for a whole range of new applications not possible in the past

Multicast disadvantages

Multicast is UDP based.

Best Effort Delivery: Drops are to be expected.
Multicast applications must not expect reliable delivery of data and should be designed accordingly. Reliable multicast will address this issue. network congestion. If possible, multicast applications should attempt to detect and avoid congestion conditions.

No Congestion Avoidance: Lack of TCP windowing and slow-start mechanisms can result in
Duplicates: Some multicast protocol mechanisms result in the occasional generation of duplicate
packets. Multicast applications should be designed to expect occasional duplicate packets.

Out of sequence delivery: Network topology changes affect the order of delivery the
application must properly address the issue.

Multicast applications

One-to-many: A single host sending to two or more (n) receivers Many-to-many: Any number of hosts sending to the same multicast
group hosts are also members of the group (sender = receiver)

Other: e.g. many-to-one: Any number of receivers sending data back to a

source (via unicast or multicast)

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Typical Multicast Network

Sourc e
First-hop router

Source segment Multicast data flow

Multicast distribution tree

Last-hop router

Receiver segment

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Multicast Forwarding

Multicast Forwarding

Multicast routing works the opposite way of unicast routing Unicast routing is concerned with where the packet is going

Multicast routing is concerned with where the packet comes from

Multicast routing uses Reverse Path Forwarding to prevent forwarding loops

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Multicast Forwarding

Dense Mode

Uses the push model Traffic Flooded throughout network Pruned back where it is unwanted Flood and prune behavior (typically every three minutes)

Sparse Mode
Uses the pull model Traffic sent only to where it is requested Explicit join behavior
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Dense Mode

Initial Flooding

Source

Multicast Packets

(S, G) state created in every router in the network!

Receiver
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Dense Mode

Pruning Unwanted Traffic

Source

Multicast Packets Prune Messages

Receiver
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Dense Mode

Results after Pruning

Source

Multicast Packets

(S, G) state still exists in every router in the network!

Flood and Prune process repeats every three minutes!!!

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Receiver

Multicast Forwarding

Dense Mode

Uses the push model Traffic Flooded throughout network Pruned back where it is unwanted Flood and prune behavior (typically every three minutes)

Sparse Mode
Uses the pull model Traffic sent only to where it is requested Explicit join behavior
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Sparse Mode

Protocol Independent works with any of the underlying unicast routing

protocols

Supports both source and shared trees Based on an explicit pull model Uses a rendezvous point (RP)
Senders and receivers meet each other Senders are registered with RP by their first-hop router Receivers are joined to the shared tree (rooted at the RP) by their local designated router
(DR)

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PIM-SM Shared Tree Join

RP

(*, G) Join Shared Tree

(*, G) State created only along the Shared Tree.

Receiver
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PIM-SM Sender Registration

Source

RP

Traffic Flow Shared Tree Source Tree (S, G) Register (S, G) Join
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(S, G) State created only along the Source Tree.

(unicast) Receiver

PIM-SM Sender Registration

Source

RP

Traffic Flow Shared Tree Source Tree (S, G) Register (S, G) Register-Stop
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(unicast) Receiver (unicast)

(S, G) traffic begins arriving at the RP via the Source tree. RP sends a Register-Stop back to the first-hop router to stop the Register process.

IGMP

IGMP
Internet Group management protocol (IGMP), a multicasting protocol in the internet protocols family, is used by IP hosts to report their host group memberships to any immediately neighboring multicast routers. IGMP messages are encapsulated in IP datagrams, with an IP protocol number of 2. IGMP has versions IGMP v1, v2 and v3.

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IGMP v1
IGMPv1: Hosts can join multicast groups. There were no leave messages. Routers were using a time-out Based mechanism to discover the groups that are of no interest To the members.

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IGMP v2
IGMPv2: Leave messages were added to the protocol. Allow group membership termination to be quickly reported to The routing protocol, which is important for high-bandwidth Multicast groups and/or subnets with highly volatile group membership.

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IGMP v3
IGMPv3: Major revision of the protocol. It allows hosts to specify the list of hosts from which they want to Receive traffic from. Traffic from other hosts is blocked inside the Network. It also allows hosts to block inside the network packets That come from sources that sent unwanted traffic.

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IGMP Snooping
IGMP snooping is designed to prevent hosts on a local network from receiving traffic for a multicast group they have not explicitly joined. It provides switches with a mechanism to prune multicast traffic from links that do not contain a multicast listener (an IGMP client). A switch will, by default, flood multicast traffic to all the ports in a broadcast domain. Multicast can cause unnecessary load on host devices by requiring them to process packets they have not solicited. When purposefully exploited this is known as one variation of a denial of service attack.

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IGMP Snooping
IGMP snooping allows a switch to only forward multicast traffic to the links that have solicited them. Essentially, IGMP snooping is a layer 2 optimization for the layer 3 IGMP. IGMP snooping takes place internally on switches and is not a protocol feature. Snooping is therefore especially useful for bandwidth-intensive IP multicast applications such as IPTV.

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Thank You

Thank You