29

IGMP

This chapter shows you how to configure the Switch as a multicast router. See also Section

22.4on page 178 for information on IGMP snooping.

29.1IGMP Overview

IP multicast is an IETF standard for distributing data to multiple recipients. The following figure shows a multicast session and the relationship between a multicast server, multicast routers and multicast hosts. A multicast server transmits multicast packets and multicast routers forward multicast packets to multicast hosts.

Figure 127 IP Multicast

Multicast Routers

Hosts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Server

A host can decide to join or leave a multicast group at any time. A host can also be a member of more than one multicast group. Multicast groups are identified by IP addresses in the Class D range (224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255). A multicast server sends packets addressed to a particular multicast group (multicast IP address).

 

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