Multicast Application; Description Of The Multicast Application - Hirschmann MACH 4000 User Manual

Network load control

8.2 Multicast application

8.2.1 Description of the Multicast application

The data distribution in the LAN differentiates between three distribution
classes on the basis of the addressed recipients:
Unicast - one recipient
Multicast - a group of recipients
Broadcast - every recipient that can be reached
In the case of a Multicast address, the Switches forward all data packets with
a Multicast address to all ports. This leads to an increased bandwidth require-
ment. Protocols such as GMRP and procedures such as IGMP Snooping en-
able the Switches to exchange information via the direct distribution of
Multicast data packets. The bandwidth requirement can be reduced by dis-
tributing the Multicast data packets only to those ports to which recipients of
these Multicast packets are connected.
You can recognize IGMP Multicast addresses by the range in which the ad-
dress lies:
MAC Multicast address 01:00:5E:00:00:00 - 01:00:5E:FF:FF:FF
Class D IP Multicast address 224.0.0.0 - 239.255.255.255
6
8.2 Multicast application
Basic - L3P
Release 4.0 11/07