PIM
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Managed Switches
Protocol Independent Multicast Concepts
The PIM protocol can be configured to operate on IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Separate CLI
commands are provided for IPv4 and IPv6 operation; however, most configuration options
are common to both protocols. Therefore, this section describes only IPv4 configuration; IPv6
configuration is similar to IPv4.
Multicast protocols are used to deliver multicast packets from one source to multiple
receivers. They facilitate better bandwidth utilization, and use less host and router
processing, making them ideal for usage in applications such as video and audio
conferencing, whiteboard tools, and stock distribution tickers. PIM is a widely used multicast
routing protocol. Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) is a standard multicast routing
protocol that provides scalable inter-domain multicast routing across the Internet,
independent of the mechanisms provided by any particular unicast routing protocol. There
are two types of PIM:
• PIM-Dense Mode (PIM-DM)
• PIM-Sparse Mode (PIM-SM)
PIM-DM
PIM-DM is appropriate for:
• Densely distributed receivers
• A ratio of few senders to many receivers (due to frequent flooding)
• High volume of multicast traffic
• Constant stream of traffic
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