Layer 2 Multicast Features; Mac Multicast Support; Igmp Snooping; Igmp Snooping Querier - Dell PowerEdge M420 Configuration Manual

Dell powerconnect m8024-k user's configuration guide

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Table of Contents

Layer 2 Multicast Features

For information about configuring L2 multicast features, see "Configuring L2

Multicast Features" on page 713.

Multicast service is a limited broadcast service that allows one-to-many and

many-to-many connections. In Layer 2 multicast services, a single frame

addressed to a specific multicast address is received, and copies of the frame

to be transmitted on each relevant port are created.

Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Snooping is a feature that

allows a switch to forward multicast traffic intelligently on the switch.

Multicast IP traffic is traffic that is destined to a host group. Host groups are

identified by class D IP addresses, which range from 224.0.0.0 to

239.255.255.255. Based on the IGMP query and report messages, the switch

forwards traffic only to the ports that request the multicast traffic. This

prevents the switch from broadcasting the traffic to all ports and possibly

affecting network performance.

When Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) and IGMP are enabled in a

network with IP multicast routing, the IP multicast router acts as the IGMP

querier. However, if the IP-multicast traffic in a VLAN needs to be Layer 2

switched only, an IP-multicast router is not required. The IGMP Snooping

Querier can perform the IGMP snooping functions on the VLAN.

In IPv4, Layer 2 switches can use IGMP Snooping to limit the flooding of

multicast traffic by dynamically configuring Layer 2 interfaces so that

multicast traffic is forwarded to only those interfaces associated with IP

multicast address.

In IPv6, MLD snooping performs a similar function. With MLD snooping,

IPv6 multicast data is selectively forwarded to a list of ports intended to

receive the data (instead of being flooded to all of the ports in a VLAN). This

list is constructed by snooping IPv6 multicast control packets.

Switch Features