Overview; Information About Multicast - Cisco Nexus 7000 Series Configuration Manual

Overview

This chapter describes the multicast features of Cisco NX-OS.
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Information About Multicast

IP multicast is a method of forwarding the same set of IP packets to a number of hosts within a network. You
can use multicast in both IPv4 and IPv6 networks to provide efficient delivery of data to multiple destinations.
Note
Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 5.2(1) for the Nexus 7000 Series devices, you can configure
Protocol-Independent Multicast v4 (PIMv4) to run over generic routing encapsulation (GRE) tunnels including
outgoing interfaces (OIF). In prior Cisco NX-OS releases, tunnel interfaces do not support PIM.
Note Beginning with Cisco NX-OS Release 7.3(0)DX(1), multicast generic routing encapsulation (mGRE) tunnels
is supported on M3 Series modules.
Multicast involves both a method of delivery and discovery of senders and receivers of multicast data, which
is transmitted on IP multicast addresses called groups. A multicast address that includes a group and source
IP address is often referred to as a channel. The Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) has assigned
224.0.0.0 through 239.255.255.255 as IPv4 multicast addresses. For more information, see
http://www.iana.org/assignments/multicast-addresses.
IPv6 multicast addresses begin with 0xFF. The IPv6 addressing architecture is defined by
more information about the IANA reserved addresses, see
http://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv6-multicast-addresses.
Information About Multicast, on page 3
General Multicast Restrictions, on page 14
Licensing Requirements for Multicast, on page 15
High-Availability Requirements for Multicast, on page 15
Related Documents, on page 15
Technical Assistance, on page 15
C H A P T E R
Cisco Nexus 7000 Series NX-OS Multicast Routing Configuration Guide
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RFC 4291. For
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