Multicasting

Unicast

Multicasting

Unicast is not scalable

Multicasting

Broadcast Wastes Bandwidth and Increases Processing Load on CPU

TCP/IP Protocols

Multicasting

The six basic requirements for supporting multicast across a routed network are as follows:

A designated range of Layer 3 addresses that can only be used by multicast applications must exist. A network administrator needs to install a multicast application on a multicast server using a Layer 3 multicast address from the designated range

Multicasting

A multicast address must be used only as a destination IP address, and specifically not as a source IP address. Unlike a unicast IP packet, a destination IP address in a multicast packet does not specify a recipients address, but rather signifies that the packet is carrying multicast traffic for a specific multicast application

Multicasting

The multicast application must be installed on all the hosts in the network that need to receive the multicast traffic for the application. The application must be installed using the same Layer 3 multicast address that was used on the multicast server. This is referred to as launching an application or joining a group

Multicasting

All hosts that are connected to a LAN must use a standard method to calculate a Layer 2 multicast address from the Layer 3 multicast address and assign it to their network interface cards (NICs) There must be a mechanism by which a host can dynamically indicate to the connected router whether it would like to receive the traffic for the installed multicast application The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) provides communication between hosts and a router IGMP snooping helps switches learn which hosts have requested to receive the traffic for a specific multicast application and to which switch ports these hosts are connected

Multicasting

There must be a multicast routing protocol that allows routers to forward multicast traffic from multicast servers to hosts without overtaxing network resources. Some of the multicast routing protocols are Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol (DVMRP), Multicast Open Shortest Path First (MOSPF), and Protocol Independent Multicast dense mode (PIM-DM) and sparse mode (PIM-SM)

Multicasting
How Multicast Delivers Traffic to Selected Users

Multicasting

Multicasting Is Scalable

Multicast IP Address Ranges

224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255

224.0.0.0 to 224.0.0.255

This range represents the entire IPv4 multicast address space. It is reserved for multicast applications

224.0.1.0 to 224.0.1.255

This range is part of the permanent groups. Addresses from this range are assigned by IANA for network protocols on a local segment. Routers do not forward packets with destination addresses used from this range.
This range is also part of the permanent groups. Addresses from this range are assigned by IANA for the network protocols that are forwarded in the entire network. Routers forward packets with destination addresses used from this range. This range is used for private multicast domains. These addresses are called administratively scoped addresses

239.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255

Multicast IP Address Ranges

Some well known reserved multicast addresses

224.0.0.1 224.0.0.2 224.0.0.4 224.0.0.5 224.0.0.6 224.0.0.13 224.0.0.22

All multicast hosts All multicast routers DVMRP routers All OSPF routers OSPF designated routers PIM routers IGMPv3

Mapping IP Multicast Addresses to MAC Addresses

Routing or IP Forwarding

IP forwarding, or IP routing, is simply the

process of receiving an IP packet, making a decision of where to send the packet next, and then forwarding the packet Internal forwarding logic in a router works basically as shown in Figure

Routing or IP Forwarding

Routing or IP Forwarding
1.

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A router receives the frame and checks the received frame check sequence (FCS); if errors occurred, the frame is discarded. The router makes no attempt to recover the lost packet. If no errors occurred, the router checks the Ethernet Type field for the packet type, and extracts the packet. The Data Link header and trailer can now be discarded. Assuming an IP packet, the router checks its IP routing table for the most specific prefix match of the packets destination IP address

Routing or IP Forwarding
4.

5.

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The matched routing table entry includes the outgoing interface and next-hop router; this information points the router to the adjacency information needed to build a new Data Link frame. Before creating a new frame, the router updates the IP header TTL field, requiring a re-computation of the IP header checksum The router encapsulates the IP packet in a new Data Link header (including the destination address) and trailer (including a new FCS) to create a new frame