Operation Manual – Multicast Protocol 
Quidway S5600 Series Ethernet Switches-Release 1510  Chapter 7  PIM Configuration
 
Huawei Technologies Proprietary 
7-5 
In order that the receiver can receive the multicast data streams of the specific IGMP 
group, PIM-SM adopts rendezvous points (RP) to forward multicast information to all 
PIM-SM routers with receivers. RP is adopted in multicast forwarding. As a result, the 
network bandwidth that the data packets and control packets occupy is reduced, and 
the processing overhead of the router is also reduced.  
In the receiving end, the router connected to the information receiver sends join 
messages to the RP corresponding to the multicast group. The join message reaches 
the root (namely, RP) after passing each router. The passed paths become the 
branches of the rendezvous point tree (RPT).  
If the sending end wants to send data to a multicast group, the first hop router will send 
registration information to RP. When the registration information reaches RP, the 
source tree establishing is triggered. Then the multicast source sends the data to RP. 
When the data reaches RP, the multicast packets are replicated and sent to the receiver. 
Replication happens only in the branch of RPT. The procedure is repeated 
automatically until the multicast packets reach the receiver.  
PIM-SM is independent of the special unicast routing protocol. Instead, it performs RPF 
check based on the existing unicast routing table.  
7.1.4  Work Mechanism of PIM-SM 
The working procedure of PIM-SM is: 
z  Neighbor discovery 
z  DR election 
z  RP discovery 
z  RPT shared tree building 
z  Multicast source registration 
z  Switching RPT to SPT 
I. Neighbor discovery 
The neighbor discovery mechanism is the same as described in PIM-DM. It is also 
implemented through Hello messages sent between each router.  
II. DR election 
With the help of Hello messages, DR can be elected for the shared network, such as 
Ethernet. DR will be the unique multicast information forwarder in the network. In either 
the network connected to the multicast source S or the network connected to the 
receiver, DR must be elected only if the network is a shared network. The DR in the 
receiving end sends Join messages to RP and the DR in the multicast source side 
sends Register messages to RP, as shown in 
Figure 7-3: