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Multicast Forwarding: Sparse Mode

The document discusses multicast forwarding and how it allows a single multicast source to send data to many receivers simultaneously while conserving bandwidth. It describes how FortiGate units can operate as Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) routers to support multicast servers and receivers on connected network segments. It also discusses PIM sparse mode and dense mode operations.

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26 views1 page

Multicast Forwarding: Sparse Mode

The document discusses multicast forwarding and how it allows a single multicast source to send data to many receivers simultaneously while conserving bandwidth. It describes how FortiGate units can operate as Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) routers to support multicast servers and receivers on connected network segments. It also discusses PIM sparse mode and dense mode operations.

Uploaded by

Dautuso4.0
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Multicast forwarding

Multicast forwarding

Multicasting (also called IP multicasting) consists of using a single multicast source to send data to many
receivers. Multicasting can be used to send data to many receivers simultaneously while conserving bandwidth
and reducing network traffic. Multicasting can be used for one-way delivery of media streams to multiple receivers
and for one-way data transmission for news feeds, financial information, and so on.

Also RIPv2 uses multicasting to share routing table information, OSPF uses multicasting to send hello packets
and routing updates, Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) uses multicasting to send routing
information to all EIGRP routers on a network segment and the Bonjour network service uses multicasting for
DNS.

A FortiGate unit can operate as a Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) version 2 router. FortiGate units support
PIM sparse mode (RFC 4601) and PIM dense mode (RFC 3973) and can service multicast servers or receivers on
the network segment to which a FortiGate unit interface is connected. Multicast routing is not supported in
transparent mode (TP mode).

To support PIM communications, the sending/receiving applications and all con-


necting PIM routers in between must be enabled with PIM version 2. PIM can use
static routes, RIP, OSPF, or BGP to forward multicast packets to their destinations.
To enable source-to-destination packet delivery, either sparse mode or dense mode
must be enabled on the PIM-router interfaces. Sparse mode routers cannot send mul-
ticast messages to dense mode routers. In addition, if a FortiGate unit is located
between a source and a PIM router, two PIM routers, or is connected directly to a
receiver, you must create a security policy manually to pass encapsulated (multicast)
packets or decapsulated data (IP traffic) between the source and destination.

A PIM domain is a logical area comprising a number of contiguous networks. The domain contains at least one
Boot Strap Router (BSR), and if sparse mode is enabled, a number of Rendezvous Points (RPs) and Designated
Routers (DRs). When PIM is enabled on a FortiGate unit, the FortiGate unit can perform any of these functions at
any time as configured.

Sparse mode
Initially, all candidate BSRs in a PIM domain exchange bootstrap messages to select one BSR to which each RP
sends the multicast address or addresses of the multicast group(s) that it can service. The selected BSR chooses
one RP per multicast group and makes this information available to all of the PIM routers in the domain through
bootstrap messages. PIM routers use the information to build packet distribution trees, which map each multicast
group to a specific RP. Packet distribution trees may also contain information about the sources and receivers
associated with particular multicast groups.

When a FortiGate unit interface is configured as a multicast interface, sparse mode is


enabled on it by default to ensure that distribution trees are not built unless at least
one downstream receiver requests multicast traffic from a specific source. If the
sources of multicast traffic and their receivers are close to each other and the PIM
domain contains a dense population of active receivers, you may choose to enable
dense mode throughout the PIM domain instead.

1086 FortiOS Handbook for FortiOS 5.2.12


Fortinet Technologies Inc.

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