Configuring SPT-Only Mode for Multiprotocol BGP-Based Multicast VPNs

In contrast to SPT-only mode, rendezvous point tree (RPT)-SPT mode (also known as shared-tree data distribution) supports the native PIM model of transmitting (*,G) messages from the receiver to the RP for intersite shared-tree join messages.

In SPT-only mode, when a PE router receives a (*, C-G) join message, the router looks for an active source transmitting data to the customer group. If the PE router has a source-active route for the customer group, the router creates a source tree customer multicast route and sends the route to the PE router connected to the VPN site with the source. The source is determined by MVPN's single-forwarder election. When a receiver sends a (*,G) join message in a VPN site, the (*,G) join message only travels as far as the PE router. After the join message is converted to a type 6 multicast route, which is equivalent to a (S,G) join message, the route is installed with the no-advertise community setting.

Single-forwarder election guarantees selection of a unique forwarder for a given customer source (C-S). The upstream PE router might differ for the source tree and the shared tree because the election is based on the customer source and C-RP, respectively. Although the single-forwarder election is sufficient for SPT-only mode, the alternative RPT-SPT mode involves procedures to prevent duplicate traffic from being sent on the shared tree and the source tree. These procedures might require administrator-configured parameters to reduce duplicate traffic and reduce null routes during RPT to SPT switch and the reverse.

In SPT-only mode, when a source is active, PIM creates a register state for the source both on the DR and on the C-RP (or on a PE router that is running Multicast Source Discovery Protocol [MSDP] between itself and the C-RP). After the register states are created, MVPN creates a source-active route. These type 5 source-active routes are installed on all PE routers. When the egress PE router with the (*,G) join message receives the source-active route, it has two routes that it can combine to produce the (S,G) multicast route. The type 6 route informs the PE router that a receiver is interested in group G. The source active route informs the PE router that a source S is transmitting data to group G. MVPN combines this information to produce a multicast join message and advertises this to the ingress PE router, as determined by the single-forwarder election.

For some service providers, the SPT-only implementation is not ideal because it creates a restriction on C-RP configuration. For a PE router to create customer multicast routes from (*, C-G) join messages, the router must learn about active sources through MVPN type 5 source-active routes. These source-active routes can be originated only by a PE router. This means that a PE router in the MVPN must learn about all PIM register messages sent to the RP, which is possible only in the following cases:

• The C-RP is colocated on one of the PEs in the MVPN.

• MSDP is run between the C-RP and the VRF instance on one of the PE routers in the MVPN.

If this restriction is not acceptable, providers can use RPT-SPT mode instead of the default SPT-only mode. However, because SPT-only mode does not transmit (*,G) routes between VPN sites, SPT-only mode has the following advantages over RPT-SPT mode:

• Simplified operations by exchanging and processing only source-tree customer multicast routes among PE routers

• Simplified operations by eliminating the need for the service provider to suppress MVPN transient duplicates during the switch from RPT to SPT

• Less control plane overhead in the service provider space by limiting the type of customer multicast routes exchanged, which results in more scalable deployments

• More stable traffic patterns in the backbone without the traffic shifts involved in the RPT-SPT mode

• Easier maintenance in the service provider space due to less state information