The software supports the following protocols to implement IP multicast routing:

• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is used between hosts on a LAN and the routers on that LAN to track the multicast groups of which hosts are members.

• Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is used between routers so that they can track which multicast packets to forward to each other and to their directly connected LANs.

• Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP) is a protocol used on routers connected to Catalyst switches to perform tasks similar to those performed by IGMP.

• RGMP is a protocol used on routers connected to Catalyst switches or networking devices functioning as Layer 2 switches to restrict IP multicast traffic. Specifically, the protocol enables a router to communicate to a switch the IP multicast group for which the router would like to receive or forward traffic.

The figure shows where these protocols operate within the IP multicast environment.

Figure 1. IP Multicast Routing Protocols

Note

CGMP and RGMP cannot interoperate on the same switched network. If RGMP is enabled on a switch or router interface, CGMP is automatically disabled on that switch or router interface; if CGMP is enabled on a switch or router interface, RGMP is automatically disabled on that switch or router interface.

RGMP enables a router to communicate to a switch the IP multicast group for which the router would like to receive or forward traffic. RGMP is designed for switched Ethernet backbone networks running PIM sparse mode (PIM-SM) or sparse-dense mode.

Note

RGMP-enabled switches and router interfaces in a switched network support directly connected, multicast-enabled hosts that receive multicast traffic. RGMP-enabled switches and router interfaces in a switched network do not support directly connected, multicast-enabled hosts that source multicast traffic. A multicast-enabled host can be a PC, a workstation, or a multicast application running in a router.

The figure shows a switched Ethernet backbone network running PIM in sparse mode, RGMP, and IGMP snooping.

Figure 2. RGMP in a Switched Network

In the figure, the sources for the two different multicast groups (the source for group A and the source for group B) send traffic into the same switched network. Without RGMP, traffic from source A is unnecessarily flooded from switch A to switch B, then to router B and router D. Also, traffic from source B is unnecessarily flooded from switch B to switch A, then to router A and router C. With RGMP enabled on all routers and switches in this network, traffic from source A would not flood router B and router D. Also, traffic from source B would not flood router A and router C. Traffic from both sources would still flood the link between switch A and switch B. Flooding over this link would still occur because RGMP does not restrict traffic on links toward other RGMP-enabled switches with routers behind them.

By restricting unwanted multicast traffic in a switched network, RGMP increases the available bandwidth for all other multicast traffic in the network and saves the processing resources of the routers.

The figure shows the RGMP messages sent between an RGMP-enabled router and an RGMP-enabled switch.

Figure 3. RGMP Messages

The router sends simultaneous PIM hello (or a PIM query message if PIM Version 1 is configured) and RGMP hello messages to the switch. The PIM hello message is used to locate neighboring PIM routers. The RGMP hello message instructs the switch to restrict all multicast traffic on the interface from which the switch received the RGMP hello message.

Note

RGMP messages are sent to the multicast address 224.0.0.25, which is the local-link multicast address reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for sending IP multicast traffic from routers to switches. If RGMP is not enabled on both the router and the switch, the switch automatically forwards all multicast traffic out the interface from which the switch received the PIM hello message.

The router sends the switch an RGMP join <G> message (where G is the multicast group address) when the router wants to receive traffic for a specific multicast group. The RGMP join message instructs the switch to forward multicast traffic for group <G> out the interface from which the switch received the RGMP hello message.

Note

The router sends the switch an RGMP join <G> message for a multicast group even if the router is only forwarding traffic for the multicast group into a switched network. By joining a specific multicast group, the router can determine if another router is also forwarding traffic for the multicast group into the same switched network. If two routers are forwarding traffic for a specific multicast group into the same switched network, the two routers use the PIM assert mechanism to determine which router should continue forwarding the multicast traffic into the network.

The router sends the switch an RGMP leave <G> message when the router wants to stop receiving traffic for a specific multicast group. The RGMP leave message instructs the switch to stop forwarding the multicast traffic on the port from which the switch received the PIM and RGMP hello messages.

Note	An RGMP-enabled router cannot send an RGMP leave <G> message until the router does not receive or forward traffic from any source for a specific multicast group (if multiple sources exist for a specific multicast group).

The router sends the switch an RGMP bye message when RGMP is disabled on the router. The RGMP bye message instructs the switch to forward the router all IP multicast traffic on the port from which the switch received the PIM and RGMP hello messages, as long as the switch continues to receive PIM hello messages on the port.