PIM-DM (Dense Mode) on the 5300xl Switches 
Introduction 
Introduction 
This feature operates only on the Series 5300xl switches. 
Feature  Default  Menu  CLI  Web 
Configure PIM Global  n/a  —  5-12  — 
Configure PIM VLAN Interface  n/a  —  5-15  — 
Display PIM Route Data  Disabled  —  5-23  — 
Display PIM Status  0 (Forward All)  —  5-27  — 
In a network where IP multicast traffic is transmitted for multimedia applica-
tions, multicast traffic is blocked at routed interface (VLAN) boundaries 
unless a multicast routing protocol is running. PIM-DM (Protocol Independent 
Multicasting-Dense Mode, draft version 3) enables and controls multicast 
traffic routing on the Switch Series 5300XL devices. 
PIM-DM is used in networks where, at any given time, multicast group mem-
bers exist in relatively large numbers and are present in most subnets. PIM-
DM operates with any unicast IPv4 routing protocol available on the switch. 
However, note that PIM-DM uses “flooding” to initially propagate a multicast 
group to a network, then prunes back the branches that have no hosts 
requiring membership. For this reason, ample bandwidth is a requirement in 
PIM-DM applications. 
IGMP provides the communication link between a host and the multicast 
router running PIM. Where hosts are connected directly to the routing device, 
such as the 5300XL, both PIM and IGMP must run on the switch. 
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