Enterasys D-Series CLI Reference 13-1
13
IGMP Configuration
ThischapterdescribestheIGMPConfigurationsetofcommandsandhowtousethem.

IGMP Overview

About IP Multicast Group Management

TheInternetGroupManagementProtocol(IGMP)runsbetweenhostsandtheirimmediately
neighboringmulticastdevice.Theprotocol’smechanismsallowahosttoinformitslocaldevice
thatitwantstoreceivetransmissionsaddressedtoaspecificmulticastgroup.
Amulticastenableddevicecanperiodicallyaskitshostsiftheywanttoreceivemulticasttraffic.If
thereismorethanonedeviceontheLANperformingIPmulticasting,oneofthesedevicesis
elected“querier”andassumestheresponsibilityofqueryingtheLANforgroupmembers.
BasedonthegroupmembershipinformationlearnedfromIGMP,adevicecandeterminewhich(if
any)multicasttrafficneedstobeforwardedtoeachofitsports.AtLayer3,multicastdevicesuse
thisinformation,alongwithamulticastroutingprotocol,tosupportIPmulticastingacrossanIP
network.
IGMPprovidesthefinalstepinanIPmulticastpacketdeliveryservice,sinceitisonlyconcerned
withforwardingmulticasttrafficfromthelocaldevicetogroupmembersonadirectlyattached
subnetworkorLANsegment.
ThisdevicesupportsIPmulticastgroupmanagementbypassivelysnoopingontheIGMPquery
andIGMPreportpacketstransferredbetweenIPmulticastdevicesandIPmulticasthostgroupsto
learnIPmulticastgroupmembers.
ThepurposeofIPmulticastgroupmanagementistooptimizeaswitchednetwork’sperformance
somulticastpacketswillonlybeforwardedtothoseportscontainingmulticastgrouphostsor
multicastdevicesinsteadoffloodingtoallportsinthesubnet(VLAN).

About Multicasting

Multicastingisusedtosupportrealtimeapplicationssuchasvideoconferencesorstreaming
audio.Amulticastserverdoesnothavetoestablishaseparateconnectionwitheachclient.It
merelybroadcastsitsservicetothenetwork,andanyhoststhatwanttoreceivethemulticast
registerwiththeirlocalmulticastswitch/router.Althoughthisapproachreducesthenetwork
overheadrequiredbyamulticastserver,thebroadcasttrafficmustbecarefullyprunedatevery
For information about... Refer to page...
IGMP Overview 13-1
Configuring IGMP at Layer 2 13-2