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    What Is Protocol Independent Multicast

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    Hakim Qaradaghi
    Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) encompasses a set of multicast routing techniques tailored for specific network scenarios. The primary PIM protocols are PIM Sparse Mode for sparsely distributed multicast groups, PIM Dense Mode which initially floods traffic everywhere and prunes unwanted paths, and Bi-directional PIM which uses a shared bidirectional tree between sources and receivers. While each protocol can operate independently, networks commonly employ a combination through techniques like manually assigning groups to each protocol.

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    What Is Protocol Independent Multicast

    Uploaded by

    Hakim Qaradaghi
    27 views5 pages
    Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) encompasses a set of multicast routing techniques tailored for specific network scenarios. The primary PIM protocols are PIM Sparse Mode for sparsely distributed multicast groups, PIM Dense Mode which initially floods traffic everywhere and prunes unwanted paths, and Bi-directional PIM which uses a shared bidirectional tree between sources and receivers. While each protocol can operate independently, networks commonly employ a combination through techniques like manually assigning groups to each protocol.

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    What is Protocol Independent Multicast

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    Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) encompasses a set of multicast routing techniques tailored for specific network scenarios. The primary PIM protocols are PIM Sparse Mode for sparsely distributed multicast groups, PIM Dense Mode which initially floods traffic everywhere and prunes unwanted paths, and Bi-directional PIM which uses a shared bidirectional tree between sources and receivers. While each protocol can operate independently, networks commonly employ a combination through techniques like manually assigning groups to each protocol.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    27 views5 pages

    What Is Protocol Independent Multicast

    Uploaded by

    Hakim Qaradaghi
    Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) encompasses a set of multicast routing techniques tailored for specific network scenarios. The primary PIM protocols are PIM Sparse Mode for sparsely distributed multicast groups, PIM Dense Mode which initially floods traffic everywhere and prunes unwanted paths, and Bi-directional PIM which uses a shared bidirectional tree between sources and receivers. While each protocol can operate independently, networks commonly employ a combination through techniques like manually assigning groups to each protocol.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    What is Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM)?

    Created: 2023-10-30 17:25:21


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    Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) encompasses a set of multicast routing techniques, each
    tailored for specific network scenarios. Two primary PIM protocols, PIM Sparse Mode and PIM
    Dense Mode, are commonly used, while a less prevalent one is Bi-directional PIM.

    Generally, a multicast domain predominantly employs either PIM Sparse Mode or PIM Dense
    Mode. Nevertheless, it's feasible to deploy both within the same domain, implementing Sparse
    Mode for certain groups and Dense Mode for others. This mixed approach is known as Sparse-
    Dense Mode. Similarly, Bi-directional PIM can function indepedently or alongside PIM Sparse
    Mode and PIM Dense Mode.

    All PIM protocols adhere to a common control message format, delivered as raw IP datagrams
    (protocol number 103). These messages are either multicast to the link-local ALL PIM ROUTERS
    group or unicast to a specific destination.

    PIM Sparse Mode


    PIM Sparse Mode (PIM-SM) is designed for situations where multicast group recipients are
    sparsely distributed acros the network. It presumes that most subnets do not require a given
    multicast packet. In PIM-SM, routers explicitly inform their upstream neighbors about their interest
    in specific groups and sources using PIM Join and Prune messages.
    PIM-SM primarily employs shared trees, rooted at a designated router called the Rendezvous
    Point (RP). Sources send data to the RP by encapsulating it in PIM control messages, which is
    then unicast to the RP via the Designated Router (DR). RP discovery mechanisms include static
    configuration, Bootstrap Router, Auto-RP, Anycast RP, and Embedded RP. Source-based trees,
    suporting Source-Specific Multicast (SSM), may also be used.

    PIM-SM operates with soft-state, where state times out after a period. PIM Join messages are
    periodically retransmitted to maintain the state.

    PIM Dense Mode


    PIM Dense Mode (PIM-DM) is designed for scenarios where multicast group recipients are
    densely distributed across the network. It assumes that most subnets desire the multicast packet.
    Initialy, multicast data is sent to all hosts in the network, and routers without interested hosts send
    Prune messages to exit the distribution tree.
    This "broadcast and prune" behavior ensures that data is only sent to areas of the network where
    it is needed. PIM-DM solely uses source-based trees, making it simpler to implement but less
    suitable for large networks with limited interest in the data.

    Bi-directional PIM
    Bi-directional PIM (BIDIR-PIM) is another PIM protocol based on PIM-SM. It differs from PIM-SM
    in the way data is sent from sources to the RP. Data in BIDIR-PIM flows along a shared,
    bidirectional tree to the RP. There are no sourcebased trees, and Designated Forwarders (DFs)
    are elected to avoid forwarding loops. BIDIR-PIM scales well when there are numerous sources
    for each group, but it forces traffic to remain on the shared tree.
    Mixed-mode PIM Configurations
    While PIM-SM, PIM-DM, and BIDIR-PIM are typically used separately in multicast domains, it is
    possible to employ a combination by asigning multicast groups to different protocols. The PIM
    Hello protocol is the common interaction point for these protocols. Techniques like Bootstrap
    Router (BSR) extensions, configuration adjustments, or manual configuration are used to
    distribute groups among the three protocols. Uniform assignment of group-to-protocol is crucial
    across all routers in the domain

    The primary way these protocols collaborate is through the utilization of the same PIM Hello
    protocol, which runs once on each conection. The knowledge acquired during the exchange of
    Hello messages must be shared among all three routing protocols.

    The process of allocating multicast groups among these three protocols falls beyond the scope of
    the PIM protocols and is a matter of local configuration. It's essential to ensure that every router in
    the network adopts a consistent group-to-protocol assignment.
    Bootstrap Router (BSR) Protocol Extension
    The BSR protocol, mainly employed for RP (Rendezvous Point) discovery, has been expanded to
    incorporate a "Bi-directional" indicator for each group range. This approach can be used to
    designate groups for either sparse or bi-directional modes when BSR is employed.

    Configuration of Routers
    Routers can be configured to switch to dense mode when the RP discovery mechanism
    (regardless of its type) fails to identify an available RP for a specific group. If RP discovery is
    successful, routers can be configured to use sparse or bidirectional mode as required.

    Manual Router Configuration


    Network administrators have the option to manually configure routers with specific group ranges,
    specifying whether they should function in sparse, dense, or bi-directional modes for each group.

    These techniques ensure that multicast groups are apropriately distributed among PIM Sparse
    Mode, PIM Dense Mode, and Bi-directional PIM, depending on network needs, even though the
    exact allocation is not standardized within the PIM protocols themselves.

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