H3C Technologies H3C S3600 Series Switches - Manual (Page 395)

3-2
Figure 3-1 Joining multicast groups
Query
Report
DR
Host A
(G2)
Host B
(G1)
Host C
(G1)
Ethernet
Router A Router B
IP network
Assume that Host B and Host C are expected to receive multicast data addressed to multicast group G1,
while Host A is expected to receive multicast data addressed to G2, as shown in Figure 3-1 . The basic
process that the hosts join the multicast groups is as follows:
1) The IGMP querier (Router B in the figure) periodically multicasts IGMP queries (with the
destination address of 224.0.0.1) to all hosts and routers on the local subnet.
2) Upon receiving a query message, Host B or Host C (the delay timer of whichever expires first)
sends an IGMP report to the multicast group address of G1, to announce its interest in G1. Assume
it is Host B that sends the report message.
3) Host C, which is on the same subnet, hears the report from Host B for joining G1. Upon hearing the
report, Host C will suppress itself from sending a report message for the same multicast group,
because the IGMP routers (Router A and Router B) already know that at least one host on the local
subnet is interested in G1. This mechanism, known as IGMP report suppression, helps reduce
traffic over the local subnet.
4) At the same time, because Host A is interested in G2, it sends a report to the multicast group
address of G2.
5) Through the above-mentioned query/report process, the IGMP routers learn that members of G1
and G2 are attached to the local subnet, and generate (*, G1) and (*, G2) multicast forwarding
entries, which will be the basis for subsequent multicast forwarding, where * represents any
multicast source.
6) When the multicast data addressed to G1 or G2 reaches an IGMP router, because the (*, G1) and
(*, G2) multicast forwarding entries exist on the IGMP router, the router forwards the multicast data
to the local subnet, and then the receivers on the subnet receive the data.
As IGMPv1 does not specifically define a Leave Group message, upon leaving a multicast group, an
IGMPv1 host stops sending reports with the destination address being the address of that multicast
group. If no member of a multicast group exists on the subnet, the IGMP routers will not receive any
report addressed to that multicast group, so the routers will delete the multicast forwarding entries
corresponding to that multicast group after a period of time.