3Com Switch 8800 Advanced Software V5 Configuration Guide

MSDP CONFIGURATION

When configuring MSDP, go to these sections for information you are interested

in:

■ “MSTP Overview” on page 609

■ “Configuring Basic Functions of MSDP” on page 616

■ “Configuring an MSDP Peer Connection” on page 618

■ “Configuring SA Messages Related Parameters” on page 619

■ “Displaying and Maintaining MSDP” on page 622

■ “MSDP Configuration Examples” on page 623

■ “Troubleshooting MSDP” on page 635

■ The term "router" in this document refers to a router in a generic sense or a

Switch 8800 running the MSDP protocol.

■ For details about the concepts of designated router (DR), bootstrap router

(BSR), candidate-BSR (C-BSR), rendezvous point (RP), candidate RP (C-RP),

shortest path tree (SPT) and rendezvous point tree (RPT) mentioned in this

manual, refer to

“PIM Configuration” on page 563.

MSTP Overview

Introduction to MSDP Multicast source discovery protocol (MSDP) is an inter-domain multicast solution

developed to address the interconnection of protocol independent multicast

sparse mode (PIM-SM) domains. It is used to discover multicast source information

in other PIM-SM domains.

In the basic PIM-SM mode, a multicast source registers only with the RP in the local

PIM-SM domain, and the multicast source information of a domain is isolated

from that of another domain. As a result, the RP is aware of the source

information only within the local domain and a multicast distribution tree is built

only within the local domain to deliver multicast data from a local multicast source

to local receivers. If there is a mechanism that allows RPs of different PIM-SM

domains to share their multicast source information, the local RP will be able to

join multicast sources in other domains and multicast data can be transmitted

among different domains.

MSDP achieves this objective. By establishing MSDP peer relationships among RPs

of different PIM-SM domains, source active (SA) messages can be forwarded

among domains and the multicast source information can be shared.