Understanding Multicast Rendezvous Points, Shared Trees, and Rendezvous-Point Trees

In a shared tree, the root of the distribution tree is a router, not a host, and is located somewhere in the core of the network. In the primary sparse mode multicast routing protocol, Protocol Independent Multicast sparse mode (PIM SM), the core router at the root of the shared tree is the rendezvous point (RP). Packets from the upstream source and join messages from the downstream routers “rendezvous” at this core router.

In the RP model, other routers do not need to know the addresses of the sources for every multicast group. All they need to know is the IP address of the RP router. The RP router discovers the sources for all multicast groups.

The RP model shifts the burden of finding sources of multicast content from each router (the (S,G) notation) to the network (the (*,G) notation knows only the RP). Exactly how the RP finds the unicast IP address of the source varies, but there must be some method to determine the proper source for multicast content for a particular group.

Consider a set of multicast routers without any active multicast traffic for a certain group. When a router learns that an interested receiver for that group is on one of its directly connected subnets, the router attempts to join the distribution tree for that group back to the RP, not to the actual source of the content.

To join the shared tree, or rendezvous-point tree (RPT) as it is called in PIM sparse mode, the router must do the following:

• Determine the IP address of the RP for that group. Determining the address can be as simple as static configuration in the router, or as complex as a set of nested protocols.

• Build the shared tree for that group. The router executes an RPF check on the RP address in its routing table, which produces the interface closest to the RP. The router now detects that multicast packets from this RP for this group need to flow into the router on this RPF interface.

• Send a join message out on this interface using the proper multicast protocol (probably PIM sparse mode) to inform the upstream router that it wants to join the shared tree for that group. This message is a (*,G) join message because S is not known. Only the RP is known, and the RP is not actually the source of the multicast packets. The router receiving the (*,G) join message adds the interface on which the message was received to its outgoing interface list (OIL) for the group and also performs an RPF check on the RP address. The upstream router then sends a (*,G) join message out from the RPF interface toward the source, informing the upstream router that it also wants to join the group.

Each upstream router repeats this process, propagating join messages from the RPF interface, building the shared tree as it goes. The process stops when the join message reaches one of the following:

• The RP for the group that is being joined

• A router along the RPT that already has a multicast forwarding state for the group that is being joined

In either case, the branch is created, and packets can flow from the source to the RP and from the RP to the receiver. Note that there is no guarantee that the shared tree (RPT) is the shortest path tree to the source. Most likely it is not. However, there are ways to “migrate” a shared tree to an SPT once the flow of packets begins. In other words, the forwarding state can transition from (*,G) to (S,G). The formation of both types of tree depends heavily on the operation of the RPF check and the RPF table.