Dell PowerConnect 7048P User Manual - Page 1137

42 Managing IPv4 and IPv6 Multicast This chapter describes how to configure and monitor layer 3 multicast features for IPv4 and IPv6, including global IP and IPv6 multicast features as well as multicast protocols, including IGMP, DVMRP, and PIM for IPv4 and MLD and PIM for IPv6. The topics covered in this chapter include: • L3 Multicast Overview • Default L3 Multicast Values • Configuring General IPv4 Multicast Features (Web) • Configuring IPv6 Multicast Features (Web) • Configuring IGMP and IGMP Proxy (Web) • Configuring MLD and MLD & Proxy (Web) n • Configuring PIM for IPv4 and b IPv6 (Web) s p • Configuring DVMRP (Web) ; • Configuring L3 Multicast Features (CLI) • L3 Multicast Configuration Examples L3 Multicast Overview IP Multicasting enables a network host (or multiple hosts) to send an IP datagram to multiple destinations simultaneously. The initiating host sends each multicast datagram only once to a destination multicast group address, and multicast routers forward the datagram only to hosts who are members of the multicast group. Multicast enables efficient use of network bandwidth because each multicast datagram needs to be transmitted only once on each network link, regardless of the number of destination hosts. Multicasting contrasts with IP unicasting, which sends a separate datagram to each recipient host. The IP routing protocols can route multicast traffic, but the IP multicast protocols handle the multicast traffic more efficiently with better use of network bandwidth. Managing IPv4 and IPv6 Multicast 1137