674 CHAPTER 48: MSDP CONFIGURATION
interconnected in series. Relayed by these MSDP peers, an SA message sent by an 
RP can be delivered to all other RPs.
Figure 199   Where MSDP peers are in the network
 
As shown in Figure 199, an MSDP peer can be created on any PIM-SM router. 
MSDP peers created on PIM-SM routers that assume different roles function 
differently.
1 MSDP peers on RPs
2 Source-side MSDP peer: the MSDP peer nearest to the multicast source (Source), 
typically the source-side RP, like RP 1. The source-side RP creates SA messages and 
sends the messages to its remote MSDP peer to notify the MSDP peer of the 
locally registered multicast source information. A source-side MSDP must be 
created on the source-side RP; otherwise it will not be able to advertise the 
multicast source information out of the PIM-SM domain.
3 Receiver-side MSDP peer: the MSDP peer nearest to the receivers, typically the 
receiver-side RP, like RP 3. Upon receiving an SA message, the receiver-side MSDP 
peer resolves the multicast source information carried in the message and joins the 
SPT rooted at the source across the PIM-SM domain. When multicast data from 
the multicast source arrives, the receiver-side MSDP peer forwards the data to the 
receivers along the RPT.
4 Intermediate MSDP peer: an MSDP peer with multicast remote MSDP peers, like 
RP 2. An intermediate MSDP peer forwards SA messages received from one 
remote MSDP peer to other remote MSDP peers, functioning as a relay of 
multicast source information.
5 MSDP peers created on common PIM-SM routers (other than RPs)
Router A and Router B are MSDP peers on common multicast routers. Such MSDP 
peers just forward received SA messages.
n
An RP is dynamically elected from C-RPs. To enhance network robustness, a 
PIM-SM network typically has more than one C-RP. As the RP election result is 
unpredictable, MSDP peering relationships should be built among all C-RPs so that 
the winner C-RP is always on the “MSDP interconnection map”, while loser C-RPs 
will assume the role of common PIM-SM routers on the “MSDP interconnection 
map”.
MSDP peers
RP 1
PIM-SM 1
Source
Router A
PIM-SM 2
Router B
RP 2
PIM-SM 3
RP 3
Receiver