15-4
Catalyst 2360 Switch Software Configuration Guide
OL-19808-01
Chapter 15 Configuring IGMP Snooping
Understanding IGMP Snooping
Router A sends a general query to the switch, which forwards the query to ports 2 through 5, which are
all members of the same VLAN. Host 1 wants to join multicast group 224.1.2.3 and multicasts an IGMP
membership report (IGMP join message) to the group. The switch CPU uses the information in the IGMP
report to set up a forwarding-table entry, as shown in
, that includes the port numbers
connected to Host 1and the router.
The switch hardware can distinguish IGMP information packets from other packets for the multicast
group. The information in the table tells the switching engine to send frames addressed to the 224.1.2.3
multicast IP address that are not IGMP packets to the router and to the host that has joined the group.
If another host (for example, Host 4) sends an unsolicited IGMP join message for the same group
(
), the CPU receives that message and adds the port number of Host 4 to the forwarding table
as shown in
. Note that because the forwarding table directs IGMP messages only to the CPU,
the message is not flooded to other ports on the switch. Any known multicast traffic is forwarded to the
group and not to the CPU.
Figure 15-2
Second Host Joining a Multicast Group
Table 15-1
IGMP Snooping Forwarding Table
Destination Address
Type of Packet
Ports
224.1.2.3
IGMP
1, 2
Table 15-2
Updated IGMP Snooping Forwarding Table
Destination Address
Type of Packet
Ports
224.1.2.3
IGMP
1, 2, 5
Forwarding
table
CPU
Host 1
Host 2
Host 3
Host 4
Router A
PFC
VLAN
1
0
2
3
4
5
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