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NS3503-16P-4C User Manual
Type
Meaning
0x16
Membership Report (version 2)
0x17
Leave a Group (version 2)
0x12
Membership Report (version 1)
IGMP packets enable multicast routers to keep track of the membership of multicast groups, on their
respective sub networks. The following outlines what is communicated between a multicast router and a
multicast group member using IGMP.
A host sends an IGMP “
report
” to join a group
A host will never send a report when it wants to leave a group (for version 1).
A host will send a “
leave
” report when it wants to leave a group (for version 2).
Multicast routers send IGMP queries (to the all-hosts group address: 224.0.0.1) periodically to see
whether any group members exist on their sub networks. If there is no response from a particular group,
the router assumes that there are no group members on the network.
The Time-to-Live (TTL) field of query messages is set to 1 so that the queries will not be forwarded to
other sub networks.
IGMP version 2 introduces some enhancements such as a method to elect a multicast queried for each
LAN, an explicit leave message, and query messages that are specific to a given group.
The states a computer will go through to join or to leave a multicast group are shown below:
Figure 4-7-6 IGMP State Transitions
IGMP Querier –
A router, or multicast-enabled switch, can periodically ask their hosts if they want to receive multicast
traffic. If there is more than one router/switch on the LAN performing IP multicasting, one of these