Internet Draft

Network Working Group                             Steven Deering (CISCO)
Internet Draft                                      Deborah Estrin (USC)
                                                  Dino Farinacci (CISCO)
                                                      Van Jacobson (LBL)
                                                       Ahmed Helmy (USC)
                                                      Liming Wei (CISCO)

draft-ietf-idmr-pim-dm-05.txt                               May 21, 1997
						    Expires Nov 21, 1997



   Protocol Independent Multicast Version 2, Dense Mode Specification



   Status of This Memo

   This document is an Internet  Draft.   Internet  Drafts  are  working
   documents  of  the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its Areas,
   and its Working Groups. (Note that other groups may  also  distribute
   working documents as Internet Drafts).

   Internet Drafts are draft  documents  valid  for  a  maximum  of  six
   months.  Internet  Drafts  may  be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by
   other documents at any time.  It is not appropriate to  use  Internet
   Drafts  as  reference  material  or  to  cite  them  other  than as a
   ``working'' draft'' or ``work in progress.''

   Please check the I-D abstract  listing  contained  in  each  Internet
   Draft  directory  to  learn  the  current status of this or any other
   Internet Draft.



















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1 Introduction

   This  specification  defines  a  multicast  routing   algorithm   for
   multicast groups that are densely distributed across an internet. The
   protocol is unicast routing protocol independent. It is based on  the
   PIM  sparse-mode  [PIMSM]  and  employs the same packet formats. This
   protocol is called dense-mode PIM. The foundation of this design  was
   largely built on [Deering91].


2 PIM-DM Protocol Overview

   Dense-mode PIM uses a technique in  which  a  multicast  datagram  is
   forwarded  if  the  receiving  interface  is  the one used to forward
   unicast datagrams to  the  source  of  the  datagram.  The  multicast
   datagram  is  then forwarded out all other interfaces. Dense-mode PIM
   builds source-based acyclic trees.

   Dense-mode PIM assumes that all downstream systems  want  to  receive
   multicast datagrams. For densely populated groups this is optimal. If
   some areas of the network do not have group members,  dense-mode  PIM
   will  prune  branches  of  the  source-based tree. When group members
   leave the group, branches will also be pruned.

   Unlike DVMRP [DVMRP] packets are forwarded on all outgoing interfaces
   (except  the  incoming)  until  pruning  and truncation occurs. DVMRP
   makes use  of  parent-child  information  to  reduce  the  number  of
   outgoing  interfaces  used  before  pruning.  In both protocols, once
   truncation occurs pruning state is maintained and  packets  are  only
   forwarded  onto  outgoing  interfaces  that  in fact reach downstream
   members.

   We chose to accept additional overhead in favor of reduced dependency
   on  the  unicast  routing  protocol.  An  assert mechanism is used to
   resolve multiple forwarders.

   Dense-mode PIM differs from sparse-mode PIM in two essential  points:
   1)  there  are no periodic joins transmitted, only explicit triggered
   grafts/prunes, and 2) there is no Rendezvous Point (RP).


3 Background

   Reverse Path Broadcasting (RPB) improved on RPF because the amount of
   duplicate packets is reduced. With RPF, the number of duplicates sent
   on a link can be as high as the number of routers directly  connected
   to that link.




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   Reverse Path Multicasting (RPM)  improves  on  RPF  and  RPB  because
   pruning  information  is  propagated upstream. Leaf routers must know
   that they are leaf routers so that in response to no IGMP reports for
   a group, those leaf routers know to initiate the prune process.

   In DVMRP there are routing protocol dependencies for  a)  building  a
   parent-child database so that duplicate packets can be eliminated, b)
   eliminating duplicate packets on multi-access LANs,  and  c)  sending
   "split  horizon  with  poison  reverse"  information to detect that a
   router is not a leaf router (if a router does not receive any  poison
   reverse  messages  from other routers on a multi-access LAN then that
   router acts as a leaf router for that LAN and knows to prune if there
   are not IGMP reports on that LAN for a group G).

   Dense-mode PIM will accept some duplicate packets in order  to  avoid
   being  routing  protocol  dependent and avoid building a child parent
   database.


   The three basic mechanisms dense-mode PIM  uses  to  build  multicast
   forwarding trees are: prune, graft and leaf-network detection.

4 Protocol Scenario

   A source host sends a multicast datagram to group G. If  a  receiving
   router  has no forwarding state for the source sending to group G, it
   creates  an  (S,G)  entry.  The  incoming  interface  for  (S,G)   is
   determined  by  doing an RPF lookup in the unicast routing table. The
   (S,G)  outgoing  interface  list   contains   dense-mode   configured
   interfaces that have PIM routers present or host members for group G.

   A PIM-Prune message is triggered when an (S,G) entry is built with an
   empty  outgoing  interface  list.  This  type  of  entry  is called a
   negative cache entry. This can occur when a leaf router has no  local
   members for group G or a prune message was received from a downstream
   router which causes the outgoing interface list to become NULL.  PIM-
   Prune  messages  are  never  sent  on  LANs in response to a received
   multicast packet that is associated with a negative cache entry.

   PIM-Prune messages received on a point to point link are not  delayed
   before  processing  as they are in the LAN procedure. If the prune is
   received on an interface that is in the outgoing interface  list,  it
   is deleted immediately. Otherwise the prune is ignored.

   When a multicast datagram is received on the incorrect LAN  interface
   (i.e. not the RPF interface), the packet is silently discarded if the
   router does not have any state about the destination group. If it  is
   received on an incorrect point-to-point interface, Prunes may be sent



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   in a rate-limited fashion. Prunes may also be rate-limited on  point-
   to-point  interfaces  when  a  multicast  datagram  is received for a
   negative cache entry. On multi-access LANs, if the packet arrives  on
   an  outgoing  interface  in  forwarding  state, an assert is sent, as
   explained in section 5.5.

5 Protocol Description

5.1 Leaf network detection

   In DVMRP poison reverse information tells a router that other routers
   on  the  shared  LAN  use  the  LAN as their incoming interface. As a
   result, even if the first hop router for that LAN does not  hear  any
   IGMP  Reports for a group, the first hop router will know to continue
   to forward multicast data packets to that group, and NOT  to  send  a
   prune message to its upstream neighbor.

   Since dense-mode PIM does not rely on any  unicast  routing  protocol
   mechanisms,  this  problem  is  solved  by  using prune messages sent
   upstream on a LAN. If a downstream router on a LAN determines that it
   has  no  more downstream members for a group, then it can multicast a
   prune message on the LAN.

   A leaf router detects that there are no members downstream when it is
   the  only  router  on  a  network  and  there are no IGMP Host-Report
   messages received from  hosts.  It  determines  there  are  no  other
   routers by not receiving PIM PIM-Hello messages.

   A router that used to have  downstream  routers  may  become  a  leaf
   router if all its neighbors went away. A PIM router should keep track
   of its neighbors that have sent  PIM-Hello  messages,  and  time  out
   those  that  are no longer doing so. When a PIM neighbor times out, a
   router should check if it is the last PIM neighbor on  that  network.
   When  the  last  PIM  neighbor  on an interface goes away, the router
   should delete that interface from the outgoing interface lists of all
   groups, if they do not have members attached on that interface.

5.2 Pruning on a Multi-access LAN

   A router sends a prune upstream when a multicast routing entry  (S,G)
   is  created  with  an  empty  outgoing  interface  list,  or when its
   outgoing interface list  becomes  empty   [*]  Prune  information  is
   flushed periodically. This (or a loss of state) causes the packets to
   be sent in RPM mode again which in turn triggers prune messages.
_________________________
[*] I.e. an outgoing interface list with all interfaces in pruned state.




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   When a prune message is sent on an upstream  LAN,  it  is  data  link
   multicast  and  IP  addressed  to  the  all PIM routers group address
   224.0.0.13. The router to process the  prune  will  be  indicated  by
   inserting  its  address  in  the "Address" field of the message. This
   address is the next-hop address obtained by looking up the source  in
   the  unicast  routing  table. This lookup is often referred to as the
   ``RPF lookup''. When the prune message is sent, the expected upstream
   router  will schedule a deletion request of the LAN from its outgoing
   interfaces for the (S,G) entry from the  prune  list.  The  suggested
   delay time before deletion should be greater than 3 seconds.

   Other routers on the LAN will hear the prune message and respond with
   a  join  if  they  still expect multicast datagrams from the expected
   upstream router. The PIM-Join message is data link multicast  and  IP
   addressed to the all PIM routers group address 224.0.0.13. The router
   to process the join will be indicated by inserting its address in the
   "Address"  field  of the message. The address is determined by an RPF
   lookup from the unicast  routing  table.  When  the  expected  router
   receives the join message, it will cancel the deletion request.

   Routers will randomly generate a join message delay timer. If a  join
   is  heard  from another router before a router sends its own, it will
   cancel sending its own join. This will reduce traffic on the LAN. The
   suggested join delay timer should be from 1 to 3 seconds.

   If the  expected  upstream  router  does  not  receive  any  PIM-Join
   messages  before the scheduled time for the deletion request expires,
   it deletes the  outgoing  LAN  interface  from  the  (S,G)  multicast
   forwarding entry.

   However, if the join message is lost, the  deletion  will  occur  and
   there  will  be no data delivery for the amount of time the interface
   remains in Prune state. To reduce the probability of this  occurence,
   a router that has scheduled to prune the interface off is required to
   immediately send a prune onto the interface. This gives other routers
   another chance to hear the prune, and to respond with a join.

   Note the special case for equal-cost paths. When an  upstream  router
   is chosen by an RPF lookup there may be equal-cost paths to reach the
   source. The higher IP addressed  system  is  always  chosen.  If  the
   unicast  routing  protocol  does  not  store all available equal-cost
   paths in the routing table,  the  "Address"  field  may  contain  the
   address  of  the  wrong upstream router. To avoid this situation, the
   "Address" field may optionally be set to 0.0.0.0 which means that all
   upstream routers (the ones that have the LAN as an outgoing interface
   for the (S,G) entry) may process the packet.





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5.3 New members joining an existing group

   If a router is directly connected to a host that wants  to  become  a
   member of a group, the router may optionally send a PIM-Graft message
   toward known sources. This allows join latency to  be  reduced  below
   that  indicated  by  the relatively large timeout value suggested for
   prune information.

   If a receiving router has state for group G, it adds the interface on
   which  the  IGMP  Report  or  PIM-Graft  was  received  for all known
   (S,G)'s. If the (S,G) entry was a negative cache  entry,  the  router
   sends a PIM-Graft message upstream toward S. Any router receiving the
   PIM-Graft message, will use the received  interface  as  an  outgoing
   interface for the existing (S,G) entry.

   If routers have no group state, they do nothing since dense-mode  PIM
   will  deliver  a  multicast  datagram to all interfaces when creating
   state for a group.

   Any router receiving the PIM-Graft message,  will  use  the  received
   interface  as  an  incoming interface for all (S,G) entries, and will
   not add the interface to the outgoing interface lists.

   PIM-Graft message is the  only  PIM  message  that  uses  a  positive
   acknowledgment  strategy.  Senders of PIM-Graft messages unicast them
   to their upstream RPF neighbors. The neighbor  processes  each  (S,G)
   and  immediately  acknowledges  each (S,G) in a PIM-GraftAck message.
   This is relatively easy, since the receiver simply  changes  the  PIM
   message type from Graft to Graft-Ack and unicasts the original packet
   back to the source. The sender periodically retransmits the PIM-Graft
   message  for  any (S,G) that has not been acknowledged. Note that the
   sender need not keep a retransmission list for  each  neighbor  since
   PIM-Grafts  are  only  sent to the RPF neighbor. Only the (S,G) entry
   needs to be tagged for retransmission.


5.4 Designated Router election

   The dense-mode PIM designated router  (DR)  election  uses  the  same
   procedure  as  in  sparse-mode PIM. A DR is necessary for each multi-
   access LAN that runs IGMP version 1, to allow a single router to send
   IGMP Host-Query messages to solicit host group membership.

   Each PIM router connected to a  multi-access  LAN  should  periodicly
   transmit  PIM-Hello messages onto the LAN. The period is specified as
   [Hello-Timer] in the sparse  mode  specification  (30  seconds).  The
   highest  addressed  router becomes the DR. The discovered PIM routers
   should be timed out after 105 seconds (the  [Neighbor-Timer]  in  the



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   PIM-SM specification]). If the DR goes down, a new DR is elected.

   DR election is only necessary on multi-access networks.


5.5 Parallel paths to a source

   Two or more routers may receive the  same multicast  datagram  that
   was replicated upstream. In particular, if  two routers have equal
   cost paths to a source and are connected on a common   multi-access
   network,   duplicate  datagrams  will  travel  downstream onto the
   LAN. Dense-mode PIM will detect such a  situation and will not let it
   persist.

   If a router receives a multicast datagram on a multi-access LAN  from
   a  source  whose corresponding (S,G) outgoing interface list includes
   the received interface, the packet must be a duplicate. In this  case
   a  single  forwarder  must  be  elected.  Using  PIM  Assert messages
   addressed to 224.0.0.13 on the LAN, upstream routers can decide which
   one  becomes  the forwarder. Downstream routers listen to the Asserts
   so they know which one was elected (typically this is the same as the
   downstream  router's  RPF  neighbor  but there are circumstances when
   using different unicast protocols where this might not be the case).

   The upstream router elected is the one that has the shortest distance
   to  the  source.  Therefore, when a packet is received on an outgoing
   interface a router will send an Assert packet on the  LAN  indicating
   what  metric  it  uses  to  reach  the source of the data packet. The
   router with the smallest numerical metric will become the  forwarder.
   All  other  upstream  routers  will  delete  the interface from their
   outgoing  interface  list.  The  downstream  routers  also   do   the
   comparison  in case the forwarder is different than the RPF neighbor.
   This is important so downstream routers  send  subsequent  Prunes  or
   Grafts to the correct neighbor.

   Associated with the metric is a  metric  preference  value.  This  is
   provided  to  deal  with  the case where the upstream routers may run
   different unicast routing protocols. The numerically  smaller  metric
   preference  is  always  preferred.  The  metric  preference should be
   treated as the  high-order  part  of  an  Assert  metric  comparison.
   Therefore,  a  metric value can be compared with another metric value
   provided both metric preferences are the same.  A  metric  preference
   can  be  assigned  per  unicast  routing  protocol  and  needs  to be
   consistent for all PIM routers on the LAN.

   The following Assert rules are provided:

   Multicast packet received on outgoing interface:





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        1    Do unicast routing table lookup on source IP  address  from
             data packet.

        2    Send Assert on interface for source IP  address  from  data
             packet,  include  metric preference of routing protocol and
             metric from routing table lookup.


        3    If route is not found, Use metric preference of  0x7fffffff
             and metric 0xffffffff.



        Asserts received on outgoing interface:


        1    Compare metric received in Assert with the  one  you  would
             have advertised in an Assert. If the value in the Assert is
             less than your value, prune the interface. If the value  is
             the  same,  compare  IP  addresses, if your address is less
             than the Assert sender, prune the interface.

        2    If you  have  won  the  election  and  there  are  directly
             connected  members  on  the LAN, keep the interface in your
             outgoing interface list. You are the forwarder for the LAN.

        3    If you have won the election  but  there  are  no  directly
             connected  members  on  the  LAN,  schedule  to  prune  the
             interface. The LAN might be a stub LAN with no members (and
             no   downstream   routers).  If  no  subsequent  Joins  are
             received, delete the interface from the outgoing  interface
             list.   Otherwise  keep  the  interface  in  your  outgoing
             interface. You are the forwarder for the LAN.



        Asserts received on incoming interface:


        1    Downstream routers will select the upstream router with the
             smallest  metric  as their RPF neighbor. If two metrics are
             the same, the highest IP address is  chosen  to  break  the
             tie.

        2    If the downstream routers  have  downstream  members,  they
             must  schedule a join to inform the upstream router packets
             should be  forwarded  on  the  LAN.  This  will  cause  the
             upstream  forwarder  to  cancel  its delayed pruning of the



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             interface.



     5.6 Timing out multicast forwarding entries

        Each (S,G) entry has timers associated with it. During this time
        source-based tree state is kept in the network.

        There should be multiple  timers  set.  One  for  the  multicast
        routing  entry  itself  and one for each pruned interface in the
        outgoing  interface  list.  The  outgoing  interface  stays   in
        forwarding  state in the list as long as there is a group member
        connected, or there is a downstream PIM neighbor  that  has  not
        sent  a  prune to it. The interface is deleted from the outgoing
        interface list if it is on  a  leaf  network  and  there  is  no
        connected  member.  The  interface  timer for a pruned interface
        should be started with the holdtime in the prune  message  (also
        referred to as the prune timer).

        When a (S,G) entry is in forwarding state, its expiration  timer
        is  set  to 3 minutes by default. This timer is restarted when a
        data packet is being forwarded. The (S,G) entry  is  deleted  if
        this timer expires.


        Once all interfaces in the outgoing interface list  are  pruned,
        the  (S,G)'s expiration timer should be set to the maximum prune
        timer among all its outgoing interfaces. During  this  time  the
        entry  is  known as a negative cache entry. Once the (S,G) entry
        times out, it can be recreated when the next multicast packet or
        join arrives.

        If  the  prune  timers  on  different  outgoing  interfaces  are
        different,  the  pruned  interface  with  the shortest remaining
        timer may expire first and turn the negative  cache  entry  into
        forwarding state. When this happens, a graft should be triggered
        upstream.













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     6 Packet Formats

        This section describes the details of the packet formats for PIM
        control messages.

        All PIM control messages have protocol number 103.

        Basically, PIM messages are either unicast (e.g.  Registers  and
        Register-Stop),  or  multicast  hop-by-hop  to `ALL-PIM-ROUTERS'
        group `224.0.0.13' (e.g. Join/Prune, Asserts, etc.).


     0                   1                   2                   3
     0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |PIM Ver| Type  |   reserved    |           Checksum            |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+





        PIM Ver
              PIM Version number is 2.


        Type  Types for specific PIM messages.  PIM Types are:



           0 = Hello
           1 = Register
           2 = Register-Stop
           3 = Join/Prune
           4 = Bootstrap
           5 = Assert
           6 = Graft (used in PIM-DM only)
           7 = Graft-Ack (used in PIM-DM only)
           8 = Candidate-RP-Advertisement



        Reserved
              Set to zero. Ignored upon receipt.


        Checksum
              The checksum is the 16-bit one's complement of  the  one's



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             complement sum of the entire PIM message, For computing the
             checksum, the checksum field is zeroed.



        { For all the packet format details, refer to  the  PIM  sparse-
        mode specification.}

     6.1 PIM-Hello Message

        It is sent periodically by PIM routers on all interfaces.

     6.2 PIM-SM-Register Message

        Used in sparse-mode. Refer to PIM sparse-mode specification.

     6.3 PIM-SM-Register-Stop Message

        Used in sparse-mode. Refer to PIM sparse-mode specification.

     6.4 Join/Prune Message

        It is sent by routers toward upstream sources.  A  join  creates
        forwarding state and a prune destroys forwarding state. Refer to
        PIM sparse-mode specification.

     6.5 PIM-SM-Bootstrap Message

        Used in sparse-mode. Refer to PIM sparse-mode specification.

     6.6 PIM-Assert Message

        The PIM-Assert message is sent when a multicast data  packet  is
        received  on an outgoing interface corresponding to the (S,G) or
        (*,G) associated with the source. This message is used  in  both
        dense-mode  and sparse-mode PIM. For packet format, refer to PIM
        sparse-mode specification.


     6.7 PIM-Graft Message

        This message is sent by a downstream  router  to  a  neighboring
        upstream  router  to  reinstate  a previously pruned branch of a
        source tree. This is done for dense-mode groups only. The format
        is  the  same  as a Join/Prune message, except that the value in
        the type field is 6.





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     6.8 PIM-Graft-Ack Message

        Sent in response to a received Graft message. The  Graft-Ack  is
        only  sent  if  the interface in which the Graft was received is
        not the incoming interface for the  respective  (S,G).  This  is
        done  for  dense-mode  groups  only.  The  format is the same as
        Join/Prune message, except that the value of  the  message  type
        field is 7.

     6.9 Candidate-RP-Advertisement

        Used in sparse-mode. Refer to PIM sparse-mode specification.

     7 Acknowledgement

        Thanks to Manoj Leelanivas, Dave Meyer  and  Sangeeta  Mukherjee
        for their helpful comments.

     8 References

        [Deering91]  S.E.  Deering.  Multicast  Routing  in  a  Datagram
        Internetwork. PhD thesis, Electrical Engineering Dept., Stanford
        University, December 1991.

        [DVMRP] RFC 1075, Distance Vector  Multicast  Routing  Protocol.
        Waitzman, D., Partridge, C., Deering, S.E, November 1988

        [PIMSM] Protocol  Independent  Multicast  Sparse-Mode  (PIM-SM):
        Protocol  Specification. S. Deering, D. Estrin, D. Farinacci, V.
        Jacobson, G. Liu, L. Wei, P. Sharma, A. Helmy, March 1997

        [PIMARCH] An Architecture for Wide-Area  Multicast  Routing,  S.
        Deering,  D.  Estrin,  D. Farinacci, V. Jacobson, G. Liu,L. Wei,
        USC Technical Report, available from authors, Nov 1996.

        [RFC1112] Host Extensions for IP Multicasting,  Network  Working
        Group, RFC 1112, S. Deering, August 1989














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