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3-6 MLD Snooping
3-6.1 Basic
Configuration
Curiously enough, a network node that acts as a source of IPv6 multicast traffic is
only an indirect participant in MLD snooping. It just provides multicast traffic and
MLD doesn’t interact with it.
Note
: In an application like desktop conferencing a
network node may act as both a source and an MLD host. However, MLD interacts
with that node only in its role as an MLD host.
A source node creates multicast traffic by sending packets to a multicast address. In
IPv6, addresses with the first eight bits set (that is, “FF” as the first two characters of
the address) are multicast addresses, and any node that listens to such an address
will receive the traffic sent to that address. Application software running on the
source and destination systems cooperates to determine what multicast address to
use.
Note
: This is a function of the application software, not of MLD.
When MLD snooping is enabled on a VLAN, the switch acts to minimize unnecessary
multicast traffic. If the switch receives multicast traffic destined for a given multicast
address, it forwards that traffic only to ports on the VLAN that have MLD hosts for
that address. It drops that traffic for ports on the VLAN that have no MLD hosts.
The section will let you understand how to configure the MLD Snooping basic
configuration and the parameters.
Web Interface
To configure the MLD Snooping Configuration in the web interface:
1.
Click Configuration, MLD Snooping, then Basic Configuration.
2.
Evoke to enable or disable the global configuration parameters. Evoke the
port to join router port and fast leave.
3.
Scroll to select the throttling mode with “Unlimited” or 1 to 10.
4.
Click “Apply” to save the setting.
5.
If you want to cancel the setting, click the reset button to revert back to
previously saved values.
