Chapter 21

Unicast and Multicast

Routing:
Routing Protocols

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 Routing
 Packet go from source to destination via
routers.
 Router consults the routing table.
 Routing table can be static [does not change
automatically] or dynamic [changes
automatically].
 Routing protocols are needed to create the
routing tables dynamically.
 A routing protocol is a combination of rules
and procedures that lets routers in the
internet inform one another of changes. It
allows routers to share whatever they know
about the internet or their neighborhood.
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 Unicasting

 In unicast routing, there is only one source and

only one destination.
 When a router receives a packet, it forwards
the packet through only one of its ports (the
one belonging to the optimum path) as defined
in routing table. Discard the packet, if there is
no route.
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 Metric of different protocols
 Metric is the cost assigned for passing through a
network.
 The total metric of a particular router is equal to the sum of
the metrics of networks that comprise the route.
 A router chooses the route with smallest metric.
 RIP (Routing Information Protocol): Cost of passing
each network is same; it is one hop count.
 If a packet passes through 10 networks to reach the
destination, the total cost is 10 hop counts.
 OSPF (Open Shortest Path First): Administrator can
assign cost for passing a network based on type of
service required.
 OSPF allows each router to have more than one routing table
based on required type of service.
 Maximum throughput, minimum delay
 BGP (Border Gateway Protocol): Criterion is the policy,
which is set by the administrator.
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 Interior and Exterior routing
 Autonomous System: Group of networks and routers
under the authority of a single administration.
 Routers inside an autonomous system is referred to
as interior routing.
 Routing between autonomous systems is referred to
as exterior routing.

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 Autonomous systems

 Solid lines show the communication between routers

that use interior routing protocols.
 Broken lines show the communication between
routers that use an exterior routing protocols.
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 Routing Information Protocol (RIP)
 RIP is based on Distance vector routing.
 Distance vector routing
 Sharing knowledge about the entire autonomous system: Each
router periodically shares its knowledge about the entire
autonomous system with its neighbours.
 Sharing only with neighbours through all its interfaces.
 Sharing at regular intervals: 30 seconds.
 Routing table
 Has one entry for each destination network of which the router is
aware.
 Each entry has destination network address, the shortest
distance to reach the destination in hop count, and next router to
which the packet should be delivered to reach its final
destination.
 Hop count is the number of networks that a packet encounters to
reach its final destination.

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 Table 21.1 A distance vector routing table
Hop Next
Destination Other information
Count Router

163.5.0.0 7 172.6.23.4

197.5.13.0 5 176.3.6.17

189.45.0.0 4 200.5.1.6

115.0.0.0 6 131.4.7.19

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 RIP Updating Algorithm
Receive: a response RIP message
1. Add one hop to the hop count for each advertised
destination.
2. Repeat the following steps for each advertised destination:
1. If (destination not in the routing table)
1. Add the advertised information to the table.
2. Else
1. If (next-hop field is the same)
1. Replace entry in the table with the advertised one.
2. Else
1. If (advertised hop count smaller than one in the
table)
1. Replace entry in the routing table.
3. Return.
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 Figure 21.4 Example of updating a routing table

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 Figure 21.5 Initial routing tables in a small autonomous system

 When a router is added to a network, it initializes a

routing table for itself, using its configuration file.
 The table consists only the directly attached networks
and the hop counts, which are initialized to 1.
 The next-hop field, which identifies the next router, is
empty.
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 Figure 21.6 Final routing tables for Figure 21.5

 Each routing table is updated upon receipt of RIP

messages using the RIP updating algorithm.
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 OSPF
 Open Shortest Path First
 Special routers called autonomous system
boundary routers are responsible for
dissipating information about other
autonomous systems into the current
system.
 OSPF divides an autonomous system into
areas.

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 Autonomous System

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 Areas in an Autonomous System
 Area is a collection of networks, hosts, and routers all
contained within an autonomous system.
 Routers inside an area flood the area with routing
information.
 Area border routers: Summarize the information about
the area and send it to other routers.
 Backbone area [Primary area]: All the areas inside an
autonomous system must be connected to the backbone.
Routers in this area are called as backbone routers. This
area identification number is 0.
 If, due to some problem, the connectivity between a
backbone and an area is broken, a virtual link between
routers must be created by the administration to allow
continuity of the functions of the backbone as the primary
area.
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 OSPF
 Metric
 Administrator can assign the cost to each route.
 Based on type of service (minimum delay, maximum throughput,
and so on)
 Link state routing
 Sharing knowledge about the neighbourhood: Each router sends
the state of its neighbourhood to every other router in the area.
 Sharing with every other router: By flooding, a process whereby a
router sends its information to all its neighbours (through all its
output ports). Each neighbour sends the packet to all its
neighbours, and so on. Every router that receives the packet sends
copies to each of its neighbours. Eventually, every router (without
exception) has received a copy of the same information.
 Sharing when there is a change; Only to its neighbours.
 Each router should have the exact topology of the internet at every
moment.
 From this topology, a router can calculate the shortest path
between itself and each network.
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 Types of Links

 Point-to-point
 Connects two routers without any other router or
host in between.
 Directly connected routers using serial line.
 Only one neighbour.

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 Transient link
 A network with several routers attached to it.
 Each router has many neighbours.

 Lot of advertisements about their neighbours.

 One of the routers in the network has two duties: true router
and designated router because we can not connect each router
to every other router through one single network. Each router
has only one neighbour, the designated router (network). On
the other hand, the designated router (network) has five
neighbours.
 Designated router represents a network. There exists a metric
between each node to the designated router but there is no
metric from the designated router to any other node.

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 Stub Link

 Stub
 A network that is connected to only one router.
 The data packets enter the network through this single
router and leave the network through this same router.
 Virtual
 When the link between two routers is broken, the
administration may create a virtual link between them, using
a longer path that probably goes through several routers.

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 Figure 21.12 Example of an internet & Graphical representation

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 Figure 21.14 Types of LSAs

 To share information about their neighbours, each

entity distributes Link State Advertisements (LSAs).
 Router Link
 A true router uses this advertisement to announce
information about all its links and what is at the other side
of the link (neighbours).

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 Figure 21.16 Network link

 A designated router, on behalf of the transient

network, distributes this type of LSA packet.
 The packet announces the existence of all the routers
connected to the network.

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 Figure 21.17 Summary link to network

 A router must also know about the networks outside

its area, and the area border routers can provide this
information.
 An area border router is active in more than one
area.
 It receives router link and network link
advertisements and creates a routing table for each
area.
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 Figure 21.18 Summary link to AS boundary router

 If a router inside an area wants to send a packet

outside the autonomous system, it should first know
the route to an autonomous boundary router; the
summary link to AS boundary router provides this
information.

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 Figure 21.19 External link

 A router inside an autonomous system wants to know

which networks are available outside the autonomous
system; the external link advertisement provides this
information.
 The AS boundary router floods the autonomous system
with the cost of each network outside the autonomous
system, using a routing table created by a exterior
routing protocol.
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  Every router in the same area has the same link state database.
 Dijkstra algorithm
 Calculates the shortest path between two points on a network, using a
graph made up of nodes and edges.
 Algorithm divides the nodes into two sets: tentative and permanent. It
chooses nodes, makes them tentative, examines them, and if they pass
the criteria, makes them permanent.

Dijkstra Algorithm
1. Start with the local node (router): the root of the tree.
2. Assign a cost of 0 to this node and make it the first permanent node.
3. Examine each neighbor node of the node that was the last permanent node.
4. Assign a cumulative cost to each node and make it tentative.
5. Among the list of tentative nodes
1. Find the node with the smallest cumulative cost and make it permanent.
2. If a node can be reached from more than one direction
1. Select the direction with the shortest cumulative cost.
6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 until every node becomes permanent.

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 Figure 21.20 Shortest-path calculation

 The number next to each node represents the cumulative cost from the
root node.
 Note that if a network can be reached through two directions with two
cumulative costs, the direction with the smaller cumulative cost is kept,
and the other one is deleted.

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 Shortest-path calculation

Internet Help http://students.ceid.upatras.gr/~papagel/project/kef5_7_1.htm

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 Table 21.2 Link state routing table for router A

Network Cost Next Router Other Information

N1 5 C

N2 7 D

N3 10 B

N4 11 D

N5 15 C

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 BGP
 Border Gateway Protocol
 Inter-autonomous system routing protocol.
 BGP is based on a routing method called path vector
routing.
 Why D.V and L.S are not good enough?
 In D.V:
 Sometimes we don’t want the route with smallest
hop count as the preferred route [like, avoiding
non-secure routes].
 D.V routing information provides only the hop count
and not the path that leads to that destination.
 A router that receives a distance vector
advertisement packet may be fooled if the shortest
path is actually calculated through the receiving
router itself.
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 Why D.V and L.S are not good enough?

 Link State routing

 Internet is too big for this routing method
 To use link state routing for the whole internet
would require each router to have a huge link
state database.
 It would also take a long time for each router to
calculate its routing table using the Dijkstra
algorithm
 Path Vector routing
 Each entry in the routing table contains the
destination network, the next router, and the path
to reach the destination.
 The path is usually defined as an ordered list of
autonomous systems that a packet should travel
through to reach the destination.
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 Table 21.3 Path vector routing table

Network Next Router Path

N01 R01 AS14, AS23, AS67

N02 R05 AS22, AS67, AS05, AS89

N03 R06 AS67, AS89, AS09, AS34

N04 R12 AS62, AS02, AS09

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 Path Vector Messages

 Autonomous boundary routers that participate in path

vector routing advertise the reach ability of the
networks in their own autonomous systems to neighbor
autonomous boundary routers.
 Concept of neighborhood here is the same as the one
described in the RIP or OSPF protocol.
 Two autonomous boundary routers connected to the
same network are neighbours.
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 Path Vector Messages

 Each router that receives a path vector message

verifies that the advertised path is in agreement with
its policy (a set of rules imposed by the administrator
controlling the routes). If it is, the router updates its
routing table and modifies the message before
sending it to the next neighbour.
 The modification consists of adding its AS number to
the path and replacing the next router entry with its
own identification.
 Loop prevention: Path vector avoids this problem by
checking the path to see if its own AS is in the list.
 Policy Routing: Check the AS in the path list against a
policy. If it is against the policy, the router can ignore
that path and that destination. It does not update its
routing table with this path, and it does not send this
message to its neighbors. So, routing table entry is
not based on metric but on policy.
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 Path Attributes

 Path is a list of attributes

 Each attribute gives some information about the path
 List of attributes help the receiving router make a
better decision when applying its policy.
 Two categories: well-known and optional
 Well-known: Every BGP router should recognize
 Mandatory
 ORIGIN: source of routing information [RIP, OSPF, …]
 AS_PATH
 NEXT_HOP
 Discretionary: Not required to be included in every update
message.
 Optional: Need not be recognized by every router
 Transitive: One that must be passed to the next router by the
router that has not implemented this attribute
 Non-transitive: One that should be discarded if the receiving
router has not implemented it.

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 Types of BGP Messages

 Open: To create a neighborhood relationship

 If the neighbor accepts the neighborhood relationship, it responds
with a keep-alive message, which means that a relationship has
been established between two routers
 Update message is used by router to withdraw destinations that
have been advertised previously, announce a router to a new
destination, or do both.
 Keep-alive: Routers exchange this message regularly (before their
hold time expires) to tell each other that they are alive.
 Notification: Sent by a router whenever an error condition is
detected or a router wants to close the connection.
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 Multicast Routing
 One to many; Source is unicast address, but
the destination is a group address (Class D)
 When a router receives a packet, it may
forward it through several of its ports
 Router may discard the packet if it is not in the
multicast path.
 Flooding: A router forwards a packet out of all
its port except the one from which the packet
came. Flooding provides broadcasting, but it
also creates loops. A router will receive the
same packet over and over from different ports.
Several copies of the same packet are
circulated, creating traffic jams.

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 Multicasting

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 IGMP
 Internet Group Management Protocol
 Group Management
 IGMP is not a multicasting routing protocol

 IGMP is a protocol that manages group

membership.
 In any network, there are one or more multicast

routers that distribute multicast packets to hosts

or other routers.
 IGMP helps the multicast router create and update

the list of groups in the network for which there is

at least one loyal member.

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 Figure 21.24 IGMP message types

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 Figure 21.25 IGMP message format

 Type: 8 –bit; Defines the type of message

 General or special query: 0x11
 Membership report: 0x16
 Leave report: 0x17
 Maximum response time
 8-bit; Defines the amount of time in which a query must be
answered; Value is in tenths of a second
 Checksum: 16-bit field carrying checksum calculated over 8-byte
message.
 Group address: 0 for general query message. The value defines
the groupid (multicast address of the group) in special query,
the membership report and leave report messages.

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 Table 21.4 IGMP type field

Type Value

General or special query 0x11 or 00010001

Membership report 0x16 or 00010110

Leave report 0x17 or 00010111

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 Figure 21.26 IGMP operation
 IGMP operates locally.
 A multicast router connected to a network has a list of multicast addresses of the
groups for which the router distributes packets to groups with at least one loyal
member in that network.
 For each group, there is one router which has the duty of distributing the multicast
packets destined for that group.
 A host or multicast router can have membership in a group. When a host has
membership, it means that one of its processes (an application program) receives
multicast packets from some group. When a router has membership, it means that
a network connected to one of its other interfaces receives these multicast packets.
 In both cases, the host and the router keep a list of groupids and relay their
interest to the distributing router.

 Routers R1 & R2 may be

distributors for some of
the groups [given in router
R] in other networks, but
not on this network.

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 Figure 21.27 Membership report

 A host or a router can join a group.

 A host maintains a list of processes that have
membership in a group.
 When a process wants to join a new group, it sends its
request to the host. The host adds the name of the
process and the name of the requested group to its list.
 If this is the first entry for this particular group, the
host sends a membership report message. If this is not
the first entry, there is no need to send the
membership report since the host is already a member
of the group; it already receives multicast packets for
this group.

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  Router maintains a list of groupids that shows
membership for the networks connected to each
interface. When there is new interest in a group for
any of these interfaces, the router sends out a
membership report. This report is sent out of all
interfaces except the one from which the new
interest comes.
 Membership report is sent twice, one after the other
within a few minutes. If the first one is lost or
damaged, the second one replaces it.

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 Figure 21.28 Leave report

 Hosts send a leave report when there is no process interested in a

specific group.
 When a multicast router receives a leave report, it cannot immediately
purge that group from its list because the report comes from just one
host or a router.
 Multicast router generates a specific query with specific groupid to
identify whether the group canNo be Response
purged or not. If no response within
the specified response time, the group can be purged from the list.

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 Monitoring membership
 Multicast router monitors all the hosts or routers in a LAN to see
if they want to continue their membership in a group.
 What happens: A case where a only alive host shuts down
without sending the leave report.
 Router periodically (by default, every 125sec) sends a general
query message. In this message, the group address field is set to
0.0.0.0. This means the query for membership continuation is for
all groups in which a host is involved, not just one.
 Query message is sent by only one router (normally called query
router) to prevent unnecessary traffic.
 The router expects reply for each group within the maximum
response time of 10 sec.
 When a host or router receives the general query message, it
responds with a membership report if it is interested in a group.
If there is a common interest (two hosts, for example, are
interested in the same group), only one response is sent for that
group to prevent unnecessary traffic.

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 Figure 21.29 General query message

No Response

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  Delayed Response
 When a host or router receives a query message, it does not
respond immediately; it delays the response.
 Each host or router uses a random number to create a
timer, which expires between 1 and 10 seconds.
 The expiration time can be in steps in 1s or less.
 Each group in the list has its own timer.
 Each host or router waits until its timer has expired before
sending a membership report message.
 As the membership report is a broadcast, the waiting host or
router receives the report and knows that there is no need
for duplication of report message by many hosts.

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 Example 1
Imagine there are three hosts in a network, as shown in Figure
21.30 (below). A query message was received at time 0; the
random delay time (in tenths of seconds) for each group is shown
next to the group address. Show the sequence of report messages.

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 Solution
The events occur in this sequence:

1. Time 12. The timer for 228.42.0.0 in host A expires and a membership
report is sent, which is received by the router and every host including host
B which cancels its timer for 228.42.0.0.
2. Time 30. The timer for 225.14.0.0 in host A expires and a membership
report is sent, which is received by the router and every host including host
C which cancels its timer for 225.14.0.0.
3. Time 50. The timer for 251.71.0.0 in host B expires and a membership
report is sent, which is received by the router and every host.
4. Time 70. The timer for 230.43.0.0 in host C expires and a membership
report is sent, which is received by the router and every host including host
A which cancels its timer for 230.43.0.0.

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 Multicast Trees
 Objectives of Multicasting are
 Each member of the group should receive one, and only one, copy of the
multicast packet. Receipt of multiple copies is not allowed.
 Nonmembers must not receive a copy.
 There must be no loops in routing; that is, a packet must not visit a router
more than once.
 The path traveled from the source to each destination must be optimal (the
shortest path).
 Source-Based Tree
 A single tree is made for each combination of source and group. MOSPF,
DVMRP, PIM-DM.
 Group-Shared Tree
 Each group in the system shares the same tree.
 Tree changes when the group changes but remains the same when the
group remains the same.
 Group determines the tree and not the source.
 Approaches to find multicast tree: Steiner tree [only theoretical],
rendezvous-point tree.
 CBT, PIM-SP

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 MBONE
 Only a small fraction of Internet routers are multicast routers.
 A multicast router may not find another multicast router in the
neighborhood to forward the multicast packet.
 Tunneling helps to connect the multicast routers logically.
Routers enclosed in broken circles are capable of multicasting.
To enable multicasting, we make a multicast backbone
(MBONE) out of these isolated routers, using the concept of
tunneling.

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 Figure 21.32 MBONE

 Logical tunnel is established by encapsulating the

multicast packet inside a unicast packet.
 The intermediate (nonmulticast) routers forward the
packet as unicast routers and deliver the packet from
one island to another.
 DVMRP supports both MBONE and tunneling.

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 Figure 21.33 Multicast routing protocols

 DVMRP
 Source-based routing protocol
 Formation of shortest-path tree
 No router knows the complete route for a particular
destination. Each router knows from which port to send out
a unicast packet on the destination address.
 Optimal tree is determined while the packet travels. When a
router receives a packet, the router forwards the packet
through some of the ports, based on the source address,
and contributes to the formation of the tree; the rest of the
tree is made by other down-stream routers.

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  This protocol should accomplish the following:
 Must prevent the formation of loops
 Must prevent duplications; no network receives more than
one copy. In addition, the path traveled by a copy is the
shortest path from the source to the destination.
 Must provide for dynamic membership.
 Reverse Path Forwarding
 A router forwards the copy that has traveled the shortest
path from the source to the router.
 To find if the packet has traveled the shortest path, RPF
uses the unicast routing table of RIP.
 It pretends that it needs to send a packet to the source and
finds if the port given by the routing table is the same from
which the packet has arrived.

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 Figure 21.34 Reverse path forwarding

 In RPF, the router forwards only the packets that

have traveled the shortest path from the source to
the router; all other copies are discarded. RPF
prevents the formation of loops.

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 Figure 21.35 RPF versus RPB

 In RPF, looping is avoided but does not guarantee the receipt of only
one copy. This is because the packet is forwarded based on source
address and not on destination address.
 To eliminate duplication, we must define only one parent router for
each network. A network can receive a multicast packet from a
particular source only through a designated parent router.
 For each source, the router sends the packet only out of these ports for
which it is the designated parent. This policy is called reverse path
broadcasting (RPB). RPB guarantees that the packet reaches every
network and that every network receives only one copy.
 Select the router with the shortest path to the source as the designated
parent router.
 RPB creates a shortest-path broadcast tree from the source to each
destination. It guarantees that each destination receives one and only
copy of the packet.
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 Reverse Path Multicasting [RPM]
 RPB does not multicast the packet, it broadcasts it.
 To be efficient, the multicast packet must reach only
those networks that have active members for that
particular group.
 In DVMRP, the first packet is broadcast to every
network. The remaining packets is based on pruning
and grafting. This is called as RPM.
 Pruning: Procedure that stops the sending of messages
from an interface.
 Grafting: Procedure that resumes the sending of
multicast messages from an interface.
 Pruning and Grafting are done by IGMP.
 RPM adds pruning and grafting to RPB to create a
multicast shortest-path tree that supports dynamic
membership changes.
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 Figure 21.36 RPF, RPB, and RPM

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 MOSPF
 Multicast Open Shortest Path First
 Uses multicast link state routing to create source-
based trees.
 First, the tree is a least-cost tree (using a metric)
instead of a shortest-path tree.
 Second, the tree is made all at once instead of
gradually (the tree is said to be premade, prepruned,
and ready to be used).
 Least-Cost Trees
 Each router knows the entire topology of the network.
 Each router uses Dijkstra’ algorithm to create a least-cost
trees that has the router as the root and the rest of the
routers as nodes of the tree.
 Least cost trees in MOSPF is different for each router.

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 Figure 21.37 Unicast tree and multicast tree

 In multicast routing, we need one tree for each source-group

pair, and the root must be the source.
 This is done using the database by asking the router to use
Dijkstra’s algorithm to create a tree with the source as the root.
 Three problems exist:
 Algorithm uses unicast addresses but the tree we need requires
group addresses.
 Membership can change frequently.
 Applying Dijkstra algorithm for each multicast packet is very
expensive timewise.

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  Solution to the problems
 Add a new link state update packet to associate the unicast
address of a host with the group address or addresses the
host is sponsoring. It is called a group membership LSA.
 We make a tree that contains all the hosts belonging to a
group, but we use the unicast address of the host in the
calculation.
 Link state packets can also solve the second problem if they
are sent whenever there is a change in the membership.
 The router can calculate the least-cost trees on demand
(when it receives the first multicast packet). In addition, the
tree can be saved in the cache memory for future use by the
same source-group pair. MOSPF is a data-driven protocol.

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 CBT
 Core-Based Tree
 Group-shared protocol that uses a core as the root of the tree.
 Autonomous system is divided into regions, and a core (center
router or rendezvous router) is chosen for each region.
 Formation of tree
 After rendezvous router is selected, every router is informed of the
unicast address of the selected router.
 All routers sends a unicast join message that passes through all routers
that are located between sender and rendezvous router.
 Each intermediate router extracts the necessary information from the
message, such as the unicast address of the sender and the port
through which the packet has arrived, and forwards the message to the
next router in the path.
 When the rendezvous router has received all join messages from every
member of the group, the tree is formed. Now every router knows its
upstream and downstream router.

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 Figure 21.38 Shared-group tree with rendezvous router

 If a router wants to leave the group, it sends a leave

message to its upstream router. The upstream router
removes the link to that router from the tree and
forwards the message to the upstream router, and so
on.

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 DVMRP and MOSPF CBT
Tree is made from the root Tree is made from the
leaves

The tree is first made There is no tree in the

(broadcasting) and then beginning; the joining
pruned. (grafting) gradually makes
the tree.

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 Figure 21.39 Sending a multicast packet to the rendezvous router

 A multicast packet is send from source to rendezvous router and it

forwards the message to all members of the group.
 Packet from source to members of group as below:
 Source [may be or may be part of the tree] encapsulates the multicast packet
inside a unicast packet with the unicast destination address of the core and
sends it to the core. This part of delivery is done using a unicast address; the
only recipient is the core router.
 Core decapsulates the unicast packet and forwards it to all ”interested” ports,
which is part of the tree and is not pruned by IGMP
 Each router that receives the multicast packet, in turn, forwards it to all
interested ports.

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 PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast)
 PIM-DM & PIM-SM are two independent multicast
routing protocols, which are unicast-protocol-
dependent.
 PIM-DM (Dense Mode)
 Unicast protocol dependent
 Used when there is a possibility that each router is involved
in multicasting
 Use of broadcast is justified because almost all routers are
involved in the process.
 Source-based routing protocol that uses RPF and
pruning/grafting strategies for multicasting
 Operation is like DVMRP but unicast protocol independent.
 It assumes that the autonomous system is using a unicast
protocol and each router has a table that can find the
outgoing port that has an optimal path to a destination. This
unicast protocol can be a distance vector protocol (RIP) or
link state protocol (OSPF).

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  PIM-SM (Sparse mode)
 Used when there is a slight possibility that each router is
involved in multicasting.
 Use of protocol that broadcasts is not justified.
 Protocol like CBT that uses a group-shared tree is more
appropriate.
 A group-shared routing protocol that has a rendezvous point
(RP) as the source of the tree.
 Like CBT but does not require acknowledgement from a join
message. In addition, it creates a backup set of RPs for each
region to cover RP failures.
 PIM-SM can switch from group-shared tree to source-based
tree strategy if necessary. This can happen if there is a
dense area of activity far from the RP.
 Multicasting is applied in distributed databases,
information dissemination, distance learning, and
particularly multimedia communications.
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