Multicast Routing Protocols
Forwarding decisions: different from unicast protocols
- multicast protocols use the source address instead of the destination address to make their forwarding decisions
Two main protocols
- DVMRP (Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol)
- Distance vector (RIP-like) algorithm
- Static configuration based on tunnels between DVMRP routers (often Sun workstations)
- Not easily scalable (e.g., max hops < 32)
- PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast)
- Typically installed on routers
- Independent from the unicast routing protocols used by the router
- Scalable (Dense-mode & Sparse-mode)