Managing ipv4 and ipv6 multicast, L3 multicast overview, E "managing ipv4 and – Dell POWEREDGE M1000E User Manual

Page 1149

Managing IPv4 and IPv6 Multicast

1149

Managing IPv4 and IPv6 Multicast

This chapter describes how to configure and monitor layer 3 multicast

features for IPv4 and IPv6, including global IP and IPv6 multicast features as

well as multicast protocols, including IGMP, DVMRP, and PIM for IPv4 and

MLD and PIM for IPv6.
The topics covered in this chapter include:

L3 Multicast Overview

IP Multicasting enables a network host (or multiple hosts) to send an IP

datagram to multiple destinations simultaneously. The initiating host sends

each multicast datagram only once to a destination multicast group address,

and multicast routers forward the datagram only to hosts who are members of

the multicast group. Multicast enables efficient use of network bandwidth

because each multicast datagram needs to be transmitted only once on each

network link, regardless of the number of destination hosts. Multicasting

contrasts with IP unicasting, which sends a separate datagram to each

recipient host. The IP routing protocols can route multicast traffic, but the IP

multicast protocols handle the multicast traffic more efficiently with better

use of network bandwidth.

;