HP FlexFabric 5700 Series Configuration Manual page 15

Figure 8 Positions of Layer 3 multicast protocols
Multicast group management protocols:
•
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) and Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol are
multicast group management protocols. Typically, they run between hosts and Layer 3 multicast
devices that directly connect to the hosts to establish and maintain the multicast group
memberships.
Multicast routing protocols:
•
A multicast routing protocol runs on Layer 3 multicast devices to establish and maintain multicast
routes and correctly and efficiently forward multicast packets. Multicast routes constitute loop-free
data transmission paths (also known as multicast distribution trees) from a data source to multiple
receivers.
In the ASM model, multicast routes include intra-domain routes and inter-domain routes.
An intra-domain multicast routing protocol discovers multicast sources and builds multicast
distribution trees within an AS to deliver multicast data to receivers. Among a variety of mature
intra-domain multicast routing protocols, PIM is most widely used. Based on the forwarding
mechanism, PIM has dense mode (often referred to as PIM-DM) and sparse mode (often referred
to as PIM-SM).
An inter-domain multicast routing protocol is used for delivering multicast information between
two ASs. So far, mature solutions include Multicast Source Discovery Protocol (MSDP) and
MBGP. MSDP propagates multicast source information among different ASs. MBGP is an
extension of the MP-BGP for exchanging multicast routing information among different ASs.
For the SSM model, multicast routes are not divided into intra-domain routes and inter-domain
routes. Because receivers know the positions of the multicast sources, channels established through
PIM-SM are sufficient for the transport of multicast information.
Layer 2 multicast protocols
Layer 2 multicast protocols include IGMP snooping, MLD snooping, PIM snooping, IPv6 PIM snooping,
multicast VLAN, and IPv6 multicast VLAN.
10