Networkshop, Nottingham, 2002

G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IP Multicast
in LANs
Gorry Fairhurst
Department of Engineering
University of Aberdeen
4.v37, (c) Apr 2002 gorry@erg.abdn.ac.uk
 G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IP Multicast
IGMP
Switched Ethernet
Ten Thorny Issues
Questions & Answers
 Internet Multicast Applications
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
One-to-Many
One sender One-Way Multicast
Audio/Video broadcast
Information push Single Source Multicast
Multicast file transfer (SSM)
Many-to-Many
Many senders
Audio/video conferences
Distributed computing Two-Way Multicast

Many-to-One Any Source Multicast

Many senders (ASM)
Voting / Auctions
Control protocols
 IP Multicast Address
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

28 bit group destination address

Class D IP Multicast Address

32 bits starting with bit pattern “1110”
224.0.0.0-239.255.255.255
224.0.0.X are reserved

IPv6
IPv6 has similar address allocations

[RFC 3171]
 IPv4 Multicast over Ethernet
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
Class D IPv4 destination address
224.0.0.0-239.255.255.255
32 bits
28 bits
1110

5 bit overlap
0 1 - 00 - 5 E - 7F - FF - FF

23 bits
48 bits
MAC hardware destination address
One L2 (MAC) address
[RFC1122] may carry multiple L3 (IPv4) addresses
 224.0.0.X
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

224.0.0.1 All multicast systems

224.0.0.2 All multicast routers
224.0.0.4 DVMRP
Multicast
224.0.0.9 RIP2 Routers Routing
224.0.0.13 PIM Routers
224.0.0.22 IGMPv3 Reports
Packets with these addresses never travel outside LAN

N.B. avoid using x.0.0.x or x.128.0.x for data

because of Ethernet address overlap
[RFC1112; RFC3171]
 UDP/IP Packet with RTP Payload
ETHER G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
Packet size = 218 bytes
Destination = 1:0:5e:2:dc:3e, (multicast) (01-00-5e-02-dc-3e)
Source = 0:d0:bb:f7:c6:c0,
Ethertype = 0800 (IPv4)
IP
Version = 4, Header length = 20 bytes
Type of service = 0x00
Total length = 204 bytes (00cc)
ID = 57862, Flags = 0x00, Frags = 0
Time To Live = 113 seconds/hops
Protocol = 17 (UDP) 0: 0100 5e02 dc3e 00d0 bbf7 c6c0 0800 4500
Header checksum = a1a9 16: 00cc e206 0000 7111 a1a9 84b9 8476 e002
Source address = 132.185.132.118 32: dc3e 7982 7982 00b8 08a0 8005 dbc6 d721
Destination address = 224.2.220.62 48: 69c0 0752 bb5f fe39 3600 8808 b120 8933
64: 6219 9118 5128 ffc8 1321 bc10 933e aa23
No options 80: 3233 ba00 e892 a00c 1a3c 0a28 37ab 012d
UDP 96: aca5 4819 9088 0b39 64ba 43a0 b9a8 04b3
Source port = 31106 (7982) 112: 88b8 4bf8 3940 d024 0a98 8b0b 1703 0a3a
128: 8820 a381 a21f 3bc0 9298 e893 90bd 042a
Destination port = 31106 (7982) 144: 0a88 3287 59ab e980 1211 4002 2208 98b1
Length = 184 (00b8) 160: 7039 0b26 e898 99ab b118 a1aa a702 9ac4
Checksum = 08a0 176: 9128 ca21 7822 2971 090a 2194 98d0 27bb
192: 0958 8092 993f b3b0 2922 337a 0f88 8810
RTP 208: 8a29 0183 fb15 b888 0d4c
180B of Data
 G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IP Multicast
IGMP
Switched Ethernet
Ten Thorny Issues
Questions & Answers
 Internet Group Management
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
IGMP v1 [RC 1112] (c) April 2002

IGMP v2 [RFC 2236] Multicast router

IGMP v3 [draft]

Router receives
IGMP Reports
to find active groups

Clients send a Report

to all routers address
when they join a group
(Type = 0x12 or 0x16)

Supported on Macs, PCs, UNIX, ...

 IGMP Query
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
IGMP state is “Soft” (c) April 2002

Needs to be periodically refreshed

A switch/router acts as an IGMP querier
Querier sends a multicast
IGMP Query (Type = 0x11)
to find active groups

Clients respond with

an IGMP Report to
(re)join active groups
 IGMP Querier Election
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
Querier Election
Only one IGMP Querier per LAN
Querier with lowest numbered IP source address (v2)
One querier
checks active groups
All routers
see all IGMP
messages

The Designated Router (DR)

need not be the querier
 “Channel Surfing” & Leave Latency
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
Groups

Delay in “turning off”

unwanted group
Time
User joins new group

Bandwidth Traffic peaks result from

leave latency as user “surfs”
multicast channels

Time
 IGMPv2 Leave / Join Override
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

(2) Group specific query

(1) Leave

(3) May send Report

Join Override
Querier sends a group specific query
(Typically repeated every sec for 3 secs)
If still members, they send a Report at random
Router continues to send to the group [RFC2236]
 IGMP v2
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
Leave Group Message
(Type = 0x17, sent to 224.0.0.2)
Optional if not last member, SHOULD if last.
In v2, router sends a Group Specific Query
(typically repeated every sec for 3 secs)

Query Interval Response Time

Upper bound for random interval in 1/10 sec
Optimise for group size (query-interval)
Larger for bigger groups (increases leave latency)

IGMP Messages carry IP Router Alert Option

4 B IP Option [RFC 2113]
But, not all implementations use Router Alert!
(Strange behaviour when routers expect this)

IGMP MRD (Type = 0x24, 0x25, 0x26) RFC 2236

 IGMP v3
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

Joining
- Join a group (as before)
- Join a group but exclude certain sources
- Join a group only for specific named sources

Queries
- All hosts respond to queries
- Routers know state of each member
- Allows instantaneous leave
 3 Versions of IGMP
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IGMP v1 - allowed joining multicast groups

(Win 95 - unless patched)

IGMP v2, 1997 - introduced fast leave

(widely implemented - UNIX, Win98)

IGMP v3 - Introduces source specific joins & leaves

Prevents denial of service attacks
Offers fine grain control over sources received
(IGMP v3 is NOT not yet widely implemented)

Each version is backwards compatible

Routers and Hosts must use oldest version present
 G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IP Multicast
IGMP
Switched Ethernet
Ten Thorny Issues
Questions & Answers
 Switch with Multicast
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
Unmanaged layer 2 switches flood all multicast

All segments carry

broadcast/ multicast
packets

Clients filter at NIC

X X

No problem, for low levels of multicast

Big problem, for high levels of multicast
 Multicast Filter Table
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

Filter (group, port) combinations

Multicast packets
travel to clients

No unwanted
multicast traffic
X

Requires manual configuration

 IGMP in a Switched LAN
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
4 solutions:
1) IGMP Snooping
(i) Switches filter every L2 multicast packet
(heavy processing)
(ii) Switch ASICs filter IGMP packets
(expensive ASIC)

2) IGMP Proxy
(expensive ASIC, more processing)

3) Router signals membership to switch

(simple, e.g., CGMP - CISCO proprietary)

4) GMRP/GARP
(simple, routers and hosts use 802.1p)
 Multicast in a Switched LAN
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IGMP messages copied to CPU

Switching Engine
CPU

X X

Multicast (MAC) address

and port lists added to
filter table by CPU

Some groups still need to be flooded:

224.0.0.x; packets from local sources; non-IP frames
 Multicast Bridge Filter Table
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

MAC group address

IP group address

MAC group address

Port list
Switches normally use MAC group address

(e.g., 224.0.01 = 01:00:5E:00:00:01

also maps to 32 other groups !!!)

Level 3 switches may forward based on IP address

 “Router” Ports
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
All multicast packets sent towards upstream routers

All
Switching Engine multicast
CPU packets

X X

Routers discovered using

PIM HELLO (224.0.0.8); DVMP (224.0.0.13); IGMP MRD
 Multicast in a Switched LAN
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
IGMP v1,v2 messages sent to same group as data

Switching Engine
CPU

X X

Lots of
multicast
packets

Desirable to use a configurable filter before CPU (ASIC)

 Undetected Leaver
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
IGMP v1,v2 messages don’t identify the end hosts

Switching Engine
CPU

X X

This end host leaves G

This end host continues to receive G
 IGMPv2 Undetected Leaver
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
Groups

Leaver not detected

(other member still present)
Time
Joins group already sent to LAN
Bandwidth Received traffic
grows until group has
no members on LAN

Time
 Leave Processing
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

CPU

X X
IGMP Leave Continues to receive

Ports with more than one IP address

e.g. a hub or unmanaged downstream switch

Careful processing of received lGMP Leave

Defer sending the leave upstream
Need to send a query back to the port
May even be safer to send a general (v1) query
If no response, and no other members
send leave to all routers
 IGMP Proxy
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IP multicast forwarding controlled by IGMP at switch

Router-side
L3 group (multicast router)
membership table
Host-side IGMP
L2 group processing
filter table (upstream)

Router-side IGMP
processing
(each downstream
interface)
 CGMP in a Switched LAN
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
IGMP messages sent to IGMP querier (router)

Switching Engine
CPU

X X

Updates
to filter table
Querier sends summary membership to switches
CGMP is multicast (to all capable switches)
 CGMP Commands
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
Router Port
Every 60 seconds
[GDA = 0; USA = router]

Join a Port
After receiving an IGMP report from user
[GDA = multicast group; USA = switch port]

Delete group from all switches

After receiving last IGMP leave message
[GDA = multicast group; USA = switch port]

Delete all groups from all switches

After router shuts down CGMP
(Or clear ip cgmp)
[GDA = 0; USA = router/0]
 GMRP
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002
Uses 802.1p VLAN Tagging (1522 B frames)
Generic Multicast Registration Protocol GARP messages

Switching Engine
CPU End hosts indicate groups
 G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IP Multicast
IGMP
Switched Ethernet
Ten Thorny Issues
Questions & Answers
 Ten Thorny Issues
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

(i) PERFORMANCE - software or hardware feature?

(ii) Forwarding of non-IP multicast traffic
(iii) SHOULD (MUST?) forward 224.0.0.X
(iv) MUST support IP Router Alert option
(v) MUST support Multicast Router Discovery (MRD)
(vi) Senders on the LAN - flood or forward to routers?
(vii) How robust? – ST, restart, end host movement?
(viii)Source address for IGMP Reports (snoop/proxy)
(ix) Future proof? IGMPv3, MLD & MLDv2
(x) Debugging & Management Information!!!
 Conclusions
G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk
(c) April 2002

IGMP
v1 - Dead
v2 - Widely supported
v3 - Soon
MLD (MLDv2) used for IPv6

Multicast-enabled LAN Switches

Snooping; Proxy ; CGMP
Widely supported - not all are equal !!!

It works!!!!
Some pitfalls - watch out for them !!!
Ask about v6 ;- )
 G Fairhurst, http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk

IP Multicast
(c) April 2002

Ethernet
IGMP
Switched Ethernet
Ten Thorny Issues
Questions & Answers