Network Working Group D. Waitzman
Request For Comments: 1075 C. Partridge
BBN STC
S. Deering
Stanford University
November 1988
Distance Vector Multicast Routing Protocol
1. Status of this Memo
This RFCdescribes a distance-vector-style routing protocol for
routing multicast datagrams through an internet. It is derived from
the Routing Information Protocol (RIP) [1], and implements
multicasting as described in RFC-1054. This is an eXPerimental
protocol, and its implementation is not recommended at this time.
Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
2. IntrodUCtion
A draft standard for multicasting over IP networks now exists [2],
but no routing protocols to support internetwork multicasting are
available. This memo describes an experimental routing protocol,
named DVMRP, that implements internetwork multicasting. DVMRP
combines many of the features of RIP [1] with the Truncated Reverse
Path Broadcasting (TRPB) algorithm described by Deering [3].
DVMRP is an "interior gateway protocol"; suitable for use within an
autonomous system, but not between different autonomous systems.
DVMRP is not currently developed for use in routing non-multicast
datagrams, so a router that routes both multicast and unicast
datagrams must run two separate routing processes. DVMRP is designed
to be easily extensible and could be extended to route unicast
datagrams.
DVMRP was developed to experiment with the algorithms in [3]. RIP
was used as the starting point for the development because an
implementation was available and distance vector algorithms are
simple, as compared to link-state algorithms [4]. In addition, to
allow experiments to traverse networks that do not support
multicasting, a mechanism called "tunneling" was developed.
The multicast forwarding algorithm requires the building of trees
based on routing information. This tree building needs more state
information than RIP is designed to provide, so DVMRP is much more
complicated in some places than RIP. A link-state algorithm, which
already maintains much of the state needed, might prove a better
basis for Internet multicasting routing and forwarding.
DVMRP differs from RIP in one very important way. RIP thinks in
terms of routing and forwarding datagrams to a particular
destination. The purpose of DVMRP is to keep track of the return
paths to the source of multicast datagrams. To make explanation of
DVMRP more consistent with RIP, the Word "destination" is used
instead of the more proper "source", but the reader must remember
that datagrams are not forwarded to these destinations, but originate
from them.
This memo is organized into the following sections:
- A description of DVMRP is presented.
- Tunnels are explained.
- The routing algorithm is shown.
- The forwarding algorithm is shown.
- The various time values are listed.
- Configuration information is specified.
This memo does not analyze distance-vector routing, nor fully explain
the distance-vector algorithm; see [1] for more information on these
topics. The process or processes that perform the routing and
forwarding functions are called "routers" in this memo.
3. Protocol Description
DVMRP uses the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) to exchange
routing datagrams [2].
DVMRP datagrams are composed of two portions: a small, fixed length
IGMP header, and a stream of tagged data.
The fixed length IGMP header of DVMRP messages is:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Version Type SuBType Checksum
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
The version is 1.
The type for DVMRP is 3.
The subtype is one of:
1 = Response; the message provides routes to some destination(s).
2 = Request; the message requests routes to some destination(s).
3 = Non-membership report; the message provides non-membership
report(s).
4 = Non-membership cancellation; the message cancels previous
non-membership report(s).
The checksum is the 16-bit one's complement of the one's complement
sum of the entire message, excluding the IP header. For computing
the checksum, the checksum field is zeroed.
The rest of the DVMRP message is a stream of tagged data. The reason
for using a stream of tagged data is to provide easy extensibility
(new commands can be developed by adding new tags) and to reduce the
amount of redundant data in a message. The elements in the stream,
called commands, are multiples of 16 bits, for convenient alignment.
The commands are organized as an eight bit command numeric code, with
at least an eight bit data portion. Sixteen-bit alignment of all
commands is required.
A message that has an error in it will be discarded at the point in
processing where the error is detected. Any state changed due to the
message contents before the error will not be restored to its
previous values.
Certain commands have default values defined in their specification.
As the defaults may be changed as the protocol is developed further,
a cautious implementation will not send out messages that depend on
defaults.
The length of DVMRP messages is limited to 512 bytes, excluding the
IP header.
3.1 NULL Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
0 Ignored
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Description: The NULL command can be used to provide additional
alignment or padding to 32 bits.
3.2 Address Family Indicator (AFI) Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
2 family
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Values for family:
2 = IP address family, in which addresses are 32 bits long.
Default: Family = 2.
Description: The AFI command provides the address family for
subsequent addresses in the stream (until a different AFI command is
given).
It is an error if the receiver does not support the address family.
3.3 Subnetmask Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
3 count
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Additional argument, with AFI = IP:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Subnet mask
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Count is 0 or 1.
Default: Assume that following routes are to networks, and use a mask
of the network mask of each route's destination.
Description: The Subnetmask command provides the subnet mask to use
for subsequent routes. There are some requirements on the bits in
the subnetmask: bits 0 through 7 must be 1, and all of the bits must
not be 1.
If the count is 0, then no subnet mask applies, assume that the
following routes are to networks, and use a mask of the network mask
of each route's destination. If count is 1, then a subnet mask
should be in the data stream, of an appropriate size given the
address family.
It is an error for count not to equal 0 or 1.
Subnetmasks should not be sent outside of the appropriate network.
See [6] for more information regarding IP subnetting.
3.4 Metric Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
4 value
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Value is the metric, as an unsigned value ranging from 1 to 255.
Default: None.
Description: The metric command provides the metric to subsequent
destinations. The metric is relative to the router that sent this
DVMRP routing update.
It is an error for metric to equal 0.
3.5 Flags0 Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
5 value
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Meaning of bits in value:
Bit 7: Destination is unreachable.
Bit 6: Split Horizon concealed route.
Default: All bits zero.
Description: The flags0 command provides a way to set a number of
flags. The only defined flags, bits 6 and 7, can be used to provide
more information about a route with a metric of infinity. A router
that receives a flag that it does not support should ignore the flag.
The command is called flags0 to permit the definition of additional
flag commands in the future (flags1, etc.).
This is an experimental command, and may be changed in the future.
3.6 Infinity Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
6 value
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Value is the infinity, as an unsigned value ranging from 1 to 255.
Default: Value = 16.
Description: The infinity command defines the infinity for subsequent
metrics in the stream.
It is an error for infinity to be zero, or less than the current
metric.
3.7 Destination Address (DA) Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
7 count
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Array of 'count' additional arguments, with AFI = IP:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Destination Address1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Destination Address2
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Count is the number of addresses supplied, from 1 to 255. The length
of the addresses depends upon the current address family. The number
of addresses supplied is subject to the message length limitation of
512 bytes.
Default: None.
Description: The DA command provides a list of destinations. While
this format can express routes to hosts, the routing algorithm only
supports network and subnetwork routing. The current metric,
infinity, flags0 and subnetmask, when combined with a single
destination address, define a route. The current metric must be less
than or equal to the current infinity.
It is an error for count to equal 0.
3.8 Requested Destination Address (RDA) Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
8 count
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Array of 'count' additional arguments, with AFI = IP:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Requested Destination Address1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Requested Destination Address2
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Count is the number of addresses supplied, from 0 to 255. The length
of the addresses depends upon the current address family. The number
of addresses supplied is subject to the message length limitation of
512 bytes.
Default: None.
Description: The RDA command provides a list of destinations for whom
routes are requested. A routing request for all routes is encoded by
using a count = 0.
3.9 Non Membership Report (NMR) Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
9 count
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Array of 'count' additional arguments, with AFI = IP:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Multicast Address1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Hold Down Time1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Multicast Address2
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Hold Down Time2
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Count is the number of Multicast Address and Hold Down Time pairs
supplied, from 1 to 255. The length of the addresses depends upon
the current address family. The number of pairs supplied is subject
to the message length limitation of 512 bytes.
Default: None.
Description: The NMR command is experimental, and has not been tested
in an implementation. Each multicast address and hold down time pair
is called a non-membership report. The non-membership report tells
the receiving router that the sending router has no descendent group
members in the given group. Based on this information the receiving
router can stop forwarding datagrams to the sending router for the
particular multicast address(es) listed. The hold down time
indicates, in seconds, how long the NMR is valid.
It is an error for count to equal 0.
The only other commands in a message that has NMR commands can be the
AFI, flags0, and NULL commands. No relevant flags for the flags0
command are currently defined, but that may change in the future.
3.10 Non Membership Report Cancel (NMR Cancel) Command
Format: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
10 count
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Array of 'count' additional arguments, with AFI = IP:
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Multicast Address1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Multicast Address2
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Count is the number of Multicast Addresses supplied, from 1 to 255.
The length of the addresses depends upon the current address family.
The number of addresses supplied is subject to the message length
limitation of 512 bytes.
Default: None.
Description: The NMR Cancel command is experimental, and has not been
tested in an implementation. For each multicast address listed, any
previous corresponding non-membership reports are canceled. When
there is no corresponding non-membership report for a given multicast
address, the Cancel command should be ignored for that multicast
address.
It is an error for count to equal 0.
The only other commands in a message that has NMR Cancel commands can
be the AFI, flags0, and NULL commands. No relevant flags for the
flags0 command are currently defined, but that may change in the
future.
3.12 Examples (with bytes in '{}'), not including the message header:
3.12.1 Supplying a single route to the IP address 128.2.251.231 with
a metric of 2, an infinity of 16, a subnetmask of 255.255.255.0:
Subtype 1,
AFI 2, Metric 2, Infinity 16, Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
{2} {2} {4} {2} {6} {16} {3} {1} {255} {255} {255} {0}
DA Count=1 [128.2.251.231]
{7} {1} {128} {2} {251} {231}
3.12.2 Supplying a route to the IP addresses 128.2.251.231 and
128.2.236.2 with a metric of 2, an infinity of 16, a subnetmask of
255.255.255.0:
Subtype 1,
AFI 2, Metric 2, Infinity 16, Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0
{2} {2} {4} {2} {6} {16} {3} {1} 255} {255} {255} {0}
DA Count=2 [128.2.251.231] [128.2.236.2]
{7} {1} {128} {2} {251} {231} {128} {2} {236} {2}
3.12.3 Request for all routes to IP destinations.
Subtype 2, AFI 2, RDA Count = 0
{2} {2} {8} {0}
3.12.4 Non Membership Report for groups 224.2.3.1 and 224.5.4.6 with a
hold down time of 20 seconds, and group 224.7.8.5 with a hold down
time of 40 seconds.
Subtype 3,
AFI 2, NMR Count = 3 [224.2.3.1, 20]
{2} {2} {10} {3} {224} {2} {3} {1} {0} {0} {0} {20}
[224.5.4.6, 20] [224.7.8.5, 40]
{224} {5} {4} {6} {0} {0} {0} {20} {224} {7} {8} {5} {0} {0} {0} {40}
3.13 Summary of Commands
Value Name Other commands allowed in same message
----- ---- ---------------------------------------
0 Null Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Metric, Flags0,
Infinity, DA, RDA, NMR, NMR-cancel
2 AFI Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Metric, Flags0,
Infinity, DA, RDA, NMR, NMR-cancel
3 Subnetmask Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Metric, Flags0,
Infinity, DA, RDA
4 Metric Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Metric, Flags0,
Infinity, DA
5 Flags0 Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Metric, Flags0,
Infinity, DA
6 Infinity Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Metric, Flags0,
Infinity, DA
7 DA Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Metric, Flags0,
Infinity, DA
8 RDA Null, AFI, Subnetmask, Flags0, RDA
9 NMR Null, AFI, Flags0, NMR
10 NMR-cancel Null, AFI, Flags0, NMR-cancel
4. Tunnels
A tunnel is a method for sending datagrams between routers separated
by gateways that do not support multicasting routing. It acts as a
virtual network between two routers. For instance, a router running
at Stanford, and a router running at BBN might be connected with a
tunnel to allow multicast datagrams to traverse the Internet. We
consider tunnels to be a transitional hack.
Tunneling is done with a weakly encapsulated normal multicasted
datagram. The weak encapsulation uses a special two element IP loose
source route [5]. (This form of encapsulation is preferable to
"strong" encapsulation, i.e., prepending an entire new IP header,
because it does not require the tunnel end-points to know each
other's maximum reassembly buffer size. It also has the benefit of
correct behavior of the originator's time-to-live value and any other
IP options present.)
A tunnel has a local end-point, remote end-point, metric, and
threshold associated with it. The routers at each end of the tunnel
need only agree upon the local and remote end-points. See section 8
for information on how tunnels are configured. Because the number of
intermediate gateways between the end-points of a tunnel is unknown,
additional research is needed to determine appropriate metrics and
thresholds.
To send a datagram on a tunnel, the following occurs:
- A null IP option is inserted into the datagram. This provides
preferred alignment for the loose source route IP option.
- A two element loose source route IP option is inserted into
the datagram.
- The source route pointer is set to point to the second element
in the source route.
- The first element in the source route is replaced with the
address of the originating host (the original IP source
address).
- The second element in the source route is replaced with the
multicast destination address provided by the originating host
(the original IP destination address).
- The IP source address is replaced with the address of the
router's appropriate outgoing physical interface (the local
tunnel end-point).
- The IP destination address is replaced with an address of the
remote router (the remote tunnel end-point).
- The datagram is transmitted to the remote router using
non-multicast routing algorithms.
Intermediate, non-multicast gateways will route the tunneled datagram
to the remote tunnel end-point. Because the datagram's IP source
address has been replaced with the address of the local tunnel end-
point, ICMP error messages will go to the originating multicast
router. This behavior is desired, because a host that sends a
multicast datagram, which a multicast router decides to tunnel,
should not be aware of the use of the tunnel. If the datagram's IP
source address were not changed when encapsulating the datagram, any
ICMP errors would be sent to the originating host.
When the remote tunnel end-point receives the tunneled datagram, the
following occurs:
- The IP source address is replaced with the first element in the
loose source route.
- The IP destination address is replaced with the second element
in the loose source route.
- The null option and the loose source route option are removed
from the datagram. This is needed because a host should not
be able to tell that it has received a datagram that was sent
through a tunnel.
Because no specific network is associated with a tunnel, there are no
local group memberships to be tracked for a tunnel. The only
neighbor on a tunnel can be the remote end-point. Routing messages
should be exchanged through tunnels, but a route is not created for a
tunnel. The routing messages should be sent as unicast datagrams
directly to the remote tunnel end-point; they should not use an IP
loose source route.
Justification for using the loose source route and record option for
tunneling:
We considered defining our own IP option to handle tunneling, but
we are worried that intermediate gateways do not transparently
pass IP options that are unknown to them. Datagrams using a new
option would not traverse the Internet. It would be better for us
if we could create a new IP option, but it won't work presently.
Recall that this is a transition design to allow us to experiment
in the current environment.
The tunneled packet containing the LSRR option has the following
features:
Field Value
----- --------------------
src address = src gateway address
dst address = dst gateway address
LSRR pointer = points to LSRR address 2
LSRR address 1 = src host
LSRR address 2 = multicast destination
Two questions raised about using the LSRR option for tunnels are
"Can intermediate gateways ignore the option?", and "Can the
destination gateway properly detect that the LSRR is used for a
tunnel?".
When an intermediate gateway receives a datagram, it examines the
destination address. For a tunneled datagram, the destination
address will not match an address of the receiving gateway.
Therefore, the LSRR option will not be examined, and the
intermediate gateway will forward the datagram on to its next hop
for the destination address.
When the destination gateway receives a datagram, it notes that
the datagram destination address matches one of its own address.
It will then look at the next LSRR option address, since the
source route is not exhausted. That address is a multicast
address. Since hosts are forbidden from putting multicast
addresses into source routes, the gateway can infer that the LSRR
is for tunneling. The weakness here is that perhaps there is some
other meaning for the multicast address in the LSRR. No other
meaning is currently defined.
If a tunneled datagram is by error addressed to a destination
gateway that does not support multicasting, then the destination
gateway will try to find a route to the multicast address. This
will fail, and an ICMP destination unreachable error message will
be sent to the tunneled datagram's source. Since the source
address in the tunneled datagram has been adjusted to be the
address of the source multicast gateway, the ICMP errors will not
go to the originating host, which has no knowledge of tunnels.
5. Routing Algorithm
This section provides a terse description of the distance-vector
routing algorithm. See [1] for more information.
While DVMRP can express routes to individual hosts, the forwarding
and routing algorithms only support network and subnetwork routing.
In the discussion below, the term "virtual interface" is used to
refer to a physical interface or a tunnel local end-point. A
physical interface is a network interface, for instance, an Ethernet
card. A route to a destination will be through a virtual interface.
The term "virtual network" is used to refer to a physical network or
a tunnel, with the qualification that routes only reference physical
networks.
The TRPB algorithm forwards multicast datagrams by computing the
shortest (reverse) path tree from the source (physical) network to
all possible recipients of the datagram. Each multicast router must
determine its place in the tree, relative to the particular source,
and then determine which of its virtual interfaces are in the
shortest path tree. The datagram is forwarded out these virtual
interfaces. The process of excluding virtual interfaces not in the
shortest path tree is called "pruning."
Consider a virtual network. Using Deering's terminology [3], a
router is called the "parent" of the virtual network if that router
is responsible for forwarding datagrams onto that virtual network
through its connecting virtual interface. The virtual network can
also be considered a "child" virtual network of the router. Using
the child information, routers can do Reverse Path Broadcasting
(RPB).
Unnecessary datagrams may still be sent onto some networks, because
there might not be any recipients for those datagrams on the
networks. There are two kinds of recipients: hosts that are members
of a particular multicast group, and multicast routers. If no
multicast routers on a virtual network consider that virtual network
uptree to a given source, then that virtual network is a "leaf"
network. If a network is a leaf for a given source, and there are no
members of a particular group on the network, then there are no
recipients for datagrams from the source to the group on that
network. That network's parent router can forgo sending those
datagrams on that network, or "truncate" the shortest path tree. The
algorithm that tracks and uses this information is the Truncated
Reverse Path Broadcasting (TRPB) algorithm.
Determining which virtual networks are leaves is not simple. If any
neighboring router considers a given virtual network in the path to a
given destination, then the virtual network is not a leaf.
Otherwise, it is a leaf. This is a voting function. If a route,
with a metric poisoned by split horizon processing, is sent by some
router, then that router uses that virtual network as the uptree path
for that route (i.e. that router votes that the virtual network is
not a leaf relative to the route's destination). Since the number of
routers on a virtual network is dynamic, and since all received
routing updates are not kept by routers, a heuristic is needed to
determine when a network is a leaf. DVMRP samples the routing
updates on a virtual interface while a hold down timer is running,
which is for a time period of LEAF_TIMEOUT seconds. There is one
hold down timer per virtual interface. If a route is received with a
metric poisoned by split horizon processing while the hold down timer
is running, or at any other time, then the appropriate virtual
interface for that route is "spoiled"-- it is not a leaf. For every
route, any virtual interface that was not spoiled by the time the
hold down timer expires is considered a leaf.
For a description of an even better forwarding algorithm, the Reverse
Path Multicasting algorithm, see [3].
A route entry should have the following in it:
- Destination address (a source of multicast datagrams) *
- Subnet mask of the destination address *
- Next-hop router to the destination address
- Virtual interface to the next-hop router *
- List of child virtual interfaces *
- List of leaf virtual interfaces *
- A dominant router address for each virtual interface
- A subordinate router address for each virtual interface
- Timer
- Set of flags that indicate the state of the entry
- Metric
- Infinity
The lines that are marked with '*' indicate fields that are directly
used by the forwarding algorithm.
The lists of child and leaf interfaces can be implemented as bitmaps.
5.1 Sending Routing Messages
DVMRP routing messages can be used for three basic purposes: to
periodically supply all routing information, to gratuitously supply
routing information for recently changed routes, or supply some or
all routes in response to a request.
Routing messages sent to physical interfaces should have an IP TTL of
1.
A number of timeouts and rates are used by the routing and forwarding
algorithms. See section 6 for their values.
Rules for when to send routing messages:
- Every FULL_UPDATE_RATE seconds a router should send out
DVMRP messages with all of its routing information to all of its
virtual interfaces. To prevent routers from synchronizing when
they send updates, a real-time timer must be used.
- Whenever a route is changed, a routing update should be sent
for that route. Some delay must occur between triggered
updates to avoid flooding the network with triggered updates;
intervals of TRIGGERED_UPDATE_RATE seconds is suggested.
- A request for all routes should be sent on all virtual
interfaces when an DVMRP router is restarted.
- If possible, when a DVMRP router is about to terminate
execution, it should send out DVMRP messages with metrics
equal to infinity for all of its routes, on all virtual
interfaces.
When sending to routers connected via networks that support
multicasting, the messages should be multicast to address 224.0.0.4.
Therefore, routers must listen to multicast address 224.0.0.4 on
every physical interface that supports multicasting. If multicasting
isn't supported, broadcasting can be used. As already mentioned,
routing updates to tunnels should be sent as unicast datagrams to the
remote end-point of the tunnel.
When sending routing messages, except in response to a specific route
request (via RDA command with a non-zero count), poisoned split
horizon processing must be done. This means that given a route that
uses network X, routing updates sent to network X must include that
route with the metric equal to the infinity and should include the
appropriate flag set in a FLAGS0 command.
Poisoned split horizon is one way to reduce the likelihood of routing
loops. Another method, not available in RIP, is to choose a better
infinity in a route. For routes propagated in a small, but well
connected, network an infinity smaller than 16 might be better. The
smaller the infinity, the less time a counting-to-infinity event will
take. In traversing a wide internet, an infinity of 16 might be too
small. At the cost of a longer counting-to-infinity event, the
infinity can be increased.
One concept in Internet Multicasting is to use "thresholds" to
restrict which multicast datagrams exit a network. Multicast routers
on the edge of a subnetted network or autonomous system may require a
datagram to have large TTL to exit a network. This mechanism keeps
most multicast datagrams within the network, reducing external
traffic. An application that wants to multicast outside of its
network would need to give its multicast datagrams at least a TTL of
the sum of the threshold and the distance to the edge of the network
(assuming TTL is used as a hop count within the network). A
configuration option should allow specifying the threshold for both
physical interfaces and tunnels.
When a router is started, it must send out a request for all routes
on each of its virtual interfaces. The request is a message that has
an RDA command with a count equal to 0 in it.
5.2 Receiving Routing Messages
A router must know the virtual interface that a routing message
arrived on. Because the routing message may be addressed to the
all-multicast-routers IP address, and because of tunnels, the
incoming interface can not be identified merely by examining the
message's IP destination address
For each route expressed in a routing message, the following must
occur:
IF a metric was given for the route:
THEN add in the metric of the virtual interface that the message
arrived on.
Lookup the route's destination address in the routing tables.
IF the route doesn't exist in the tables:
THEN try to find a route to the same network in the routing
tables.
IF that route exists in the tables:
THEN IF this route came from the same router as the router
that the found route came from:
THEN CONTINUE with next route.
IF route doesn't have a metric of infinity:
THEN add the route to the routing tables.
CONTINUE with next route.
IF this route came from the same router as the router that the found
route came from:
THEN clear the route timer.
IF a metric was received, and it is different than the found
route's metric:
THEN change the found route to use the new metric and
infinity.
IF the metric is equal to the infinity:
THEN set the route timer to the
EXPIRATION_TIMEOUT.
CONTINUE with next route.
IF the received infinity does not equal the found route's
infinity:
THEN change the found route's infinity to be the received
infinity.
change the found route's metric to be the minimum of
the received infinity and the found route's metric.
ELSE IF a metric was received, and (it is less than the found
route's metric or (the route timer is at least halfway to the
EXPIRATION_TIMEOUT and the found route's metric equals the
received metric, and the metric is less than the received
infinity)):
THEN change the routing tables to use the received route.
clear the route timer.
CONTINUE with next route.
5.3 Neighbors
A list should be kept of the neighboring multicast routers on every
attached network. The information can be derived by the DVMRP
routing messages that are received. A neighbor that has not been
heard from in NEIGHBOR_TIMEOUT seconds should be considered to be
down.
5.4 Local Group Memberships
As required by [2], a multicast router must keep track of group
memberships on the multicast-capable networks attached to it. Every
QUERY_RATE seconds an IGMP membership request should be sent to the
All Hosts multicast address (224.0.0.1) on each network by a
designated router on that network. The IGMP membership request will
cause hosts to respond with IGMP membership reports after a small
delay. Hosts will send the report for a group to the group's
multicast address.
The membership requests should have an IP TTL of 1.
The routers on a network elect or "designate" a single router to do
the queries. The designated router is the router with the lowest IP
address on that network. Upon startup a router considers itself to
be the designated router until it learns (presumably through routing
messages) of a router with a lower address. To learn about the group
members present on a network at startup, a router should multicast a
number of membership requests, separated by a small delay. We
suggest sending three requests separated by four seconds.
The multicast router must receive all datagrams sent to all multicast
addresses. Upon receiving an IGMP membership report for a group from
an interface, it must either record the existence of that group on
the interface and record the time, or update the time if the group is
already recorded. The recorded group memberships must be timed-out.
If a group member report is not received for a recorded group after
MEMBERSHIP_TIMEOUT seconds, the recorded group should be deleted.
6. Forwarding Algorithm
The section describes the multicast forwarding algorithm and the
state that must be kept for the algorithm.
The forwarding algorithm is applied to determine how multicast
datagrams arriving on a physical interface or a tunnel should be
handled. If multicast datagrams were flooded, a datagram received on
one virtual interface would be forwarded out of every other virtual
interface. Because of redundant paths in the internet, datagrams
would be duplicated. The child and leaf information, that the
routing algorithm supplies, is used to prune branches in the tree to
all possible destinations.
In route entries, there is a dominant router address for each virtual
interface. This address is the address of some router that has a
route with a lower metric (and whose metric does not equal infinity)
to the destination, on that virtual interface. The dominant router
address is not set for the next-hop virtual interface.
Also in route entries, there is a subordinate router address for each
virtual interface. This address is the address of some router that
considers this router to be the parent of the virtual network.
Therefore, the subordinate router address is not set for a virtual
interface to a leaf network.
The algorithm for manipulating the children and leaf lists in route
entries is:
Upon router startup:
Create a route entry for each virtual interface, with:
- all other virtual interfaces in its child list,
- an empty leaf list,
- no dominant router addresses, and
- no subordinate router addresses.
Start a hold down timer for each virtual interface, with
a value of LEAF_TIMEOUT.
Upon receiving a new route:
Create the route entry, with:
- all virtual interfaces, other than the one on which the
new route was received, in its child list,
- empty leaf list,
- no dominant router addresses, and
- no subordinate router addresses.
Start the hold down timer for all virtual interfaces, other
than the one on which the new route was received, with a
value of LEAF_TIMEOUT.
Upon receiving a route on virtual interface V from neighbor N with a
lower metric than the one in the routing table (or the same metric as
the one in the routing table, if N's address is less than my address
for V), for that route:
If V is in the child list, delete V from the child list.
If there is no dominant router for V and if V is not (now) the
next-hop virtual interface, record N as the dominant router.
Upon receiving a route on virtual interface V from neighbor N with a
larger metric than the one in the routing table (or the same metric
as the one in the routing table, if N's address is greater than my
address for V), for that route:
If N is the dominant router for V, delete N as the dominant router
and add V to the child list.
Upon receiving a route from neighbor N on virtual interface V with a
metric equal to infinity (the split horizon flag should also be set),
for that route:
If V is in the leaf list, delete V from the leaf list.
If there is no subordinate router for V, record N as the
subordinate router.
Upon receiving a route from neighbor N on virtual interface V with a
metric other than infinity (and no split horizon flag), for that
route:
If N is the subordinate router for V, delete N as the subordinate
router and start the hold down timer for V.
Upon timer expiration for a virtual interface (V), for each route:
If there is no subordinate router for V, add V to the leaf list.
Upon failure of neighbor N on virtual interface V, for each route:
If N is the dominant router for V, delete N as the dominant router
and add V to the child list.
If N is the subordinate router for V, delete N as the subordinate
router and start the hold down timer for V.
The forwarding algorithm is:
IF the IP TTL is less than 2:
THEN CONTINUE with next datagram.
find the route to the source of the IP datagram.
IF no route exists:
THEN CONTINUE with next datagram.
IF the datagram was not received on the next-hop virtual interface
for the route:
THEN CONTINUE with next datagram.
IF the datagram is tunneled:
THEN replace the datagram's source address with the first address
in the IP loose source route.
replace the datagram's destination address with the second
address in the IP loose source route.
delete the loose source route and the null option from the
datagram and adjust the IP header length fields to reflect
the deletion.
If the datagram destination is group 224.0.0.0 or group 224.0.0.1:
THEN CONTINUE with next datagram.
FOR each virtual interface V
DO IF V is in the child list for the source of the datagram:
THEN IF V is not in the leaf list for the source
OR there are members of the destination group on V:
THEN IF the IP TTL is greater then V's threshold:
THEN subtract 1 from the IP TTL
forward the datagram out V
7. Time Values
This section contains a list of the various rates and timeouts, their
meanings, and their values. All values are in seconds.
How dynamic the routing environment is effects the following rates.
A lower rate will allow quicker adaptation to a change in the
environment, at the cost of wasting network bandwidth.
FULL_UPDATE_RATE = 60
- How often routing messages containing complete routing
tables are sent.
TRIGGERED_UPDATE_RATE = 5
- How often triggered routing messages may be sent out.
Raising the following rates and timeouts may increase the time that
packets may be forwarded to a virtual interface unnecessarily.
QUERY_RATE = 120
- How often local group membership is queried.
MEMBERSHIP_TIMEOUT = 2 * QUERY_RATE + 20
- How long a local group membership is valid without
confirmation.
LEAF_TIMEOUT = 2 * FULL_UPDATE_RATE + 5
- How long the hold down timer is for a virtual interface.
Increasing the following timeouts will increase the stability of the
routing algorithm, at the cost of slower reactions to changes in the
routing environment.
NEIGHBOR_TIMEOUT = 4 * FULL_UPDATE_RATE
- How long a neighbor is considered up without confirmation.
This is important for timing out routes, and for setting
the children and leaf flags.
EXPIRATION_TIMEOUT = 2 * FULL_UPDATE_RATE
- How long a route is considered valid without confirmation.
When this timeout expires, packets will no longer be
forwarded on the route, and routing updates will consider
this route to have a metric of infinity.
GARBAGE_TIMEOUT = 4 * FULL_UPDATE_RATE
- How long a route exists without confirmation. When this
timeout expires, routing updates will no longer contain any
information on this route, and the route will be deleted.
8. Configuration options
A router should be configurabled with the following information:
- Tunnel descriptions: local end-point, remote end-point, metric, and
threshold. If no threshold is provided, the metric should be used
as the default threshold.
- For a physical interface: metric, infinity, threshold and
subnetwork mask. If no threshold is provided, the metric should be
used as the default threshold.
9. Conclusion
This memo has presented DVMRP, an extensible distance-vector-style
routing protocol, and a TRPB routing algorithm. An implementation of
the ideas presented in this document has been done, and is being
tested.
The added features in DVMRP, as compared to RIP, give it flexibility
at the cost of more complex processing. DVMRP still has the
disadvantages of being a distance-vector algorithm. Because link-
state algorithms maintain much of the state information that DVMRP
has to maintain in excess of what RIP needs, a multicast link-state
routing protocol should be developed.
The TRPB algorithm can cause unneeded datagrams to be sent. The
Reverse Path Multicasting algorithm (RPM) [3] might be a better
algorithm. The NMR and NMR-cancel DVMRP messages are designed to
support RPM. Further research is needed on this topic.
10. Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Robb Foster, Alan Dahlbom, Ross Callon, and
the IETF Host Working Group for their ideas.
11. Bibliography
[1] Hedrick, C., "Routing Information Protocol", RFC1058, Rutgers
University, June 1988.
[2] Deering, S., "Host Extensions for IP Multicasting", RFC1054,
Stanford University, May 1988.
[3] Deering, S., "Multicast Routing in Internetworks and Extended
LANs", SIGCOMM Summer 1988 Proceedings, August 1988.
[4] Callon, R., "A Comparison of 'Link State' and 'Distance
Vector' Routing Algorithms", DEC, November 1987.
[5] Postel, J., "Internet Protocol", RFC791, USC/Information
Sciences Institute, September 1981.
[6] Mills, D., "Toward an Internet Standard Scheme for
Subnetting", RFC940, University of Delaware, April 1985.
