IPv6 Multicasting

By : Kaveri Bhaumik IIT Kanpur

Topics covered are

Definition of multicasting Multicast addresses Comparison between IPv4 multicasting & IPv6 multicasting VideoLAN Client (VLC) media player Advantage of using multicasting in VLC Installing VLC UDP Streaming With VLC using the GUI

Definition of Multicasting
Multicast is communication between a single sender and multiple receivers on a network. Together with anycast and unicast, multicast is one of the packet types in the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).

Graphical Representation Of Multicasting

Sending Entity Receiving Entity

Service Provider

Receiving Entity

IPv6 ADDRESSING
There are three types of addresses: Unicast: An identifier for a single interface. Anycast: An identifier for a set of interfaces and is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by that address.

Multicast: An identifier for a set of interfaces and is delivered to all interfaces identified by that address.

Note :-> There are no broadcast addresses in IPv6, their

function being superseded by multicast addresses.

Multicast addresses
Multicast addresses always start with (xx is the scope value) ffxy: Multicast addresses format:
| 8 | 4| 4 | 112 bits | +-------------+---+------+---------------------------------------+ |11111111|flgs|scop| group ID | +------------+----+------+--------------------------------------+

Multicast addresses are split into scopes and types

Multicast addresses format

11111111 at the start of the address identifies the address as being a multicast address. + - + - + -+ - + | 0|0|0|T | + - + - + -+ - +

flgs is a set of 4 flags:

The high-order 3 flags are reserved.

T = 0 indicates a permanently-assigned ("well-known") multicast address, assigned by the global internet numbering authority. T = 1 indicates a non-permanently-assigned ("transient") multicast address.

Multicast scopes

ffx1: node-local ffx2: link-local ffx5: site-local ffx8: organization-local ffxe: global scope others are reserved

Multicast types
All Nodes Address: ID = 1h, addresses all hosts on the local node (ff01:0:0:0:0:0:0:1) or the connected link (ff02:0:0:0:0:0:0:1).

All Routers Address: ID = 2h, addresses all routers on the local node (ff01:0:0:0:0:0:0:2), on the connected link (ff02:0:0:0:0:0:0:2), or on the local site (ff05:0:0:0:0:0:0:2).

Comparison between IPv4 multicasting & IPv6 multicasting

Although the basic notion of multicasting is common to IPv4 and IPv6, several new characteristics are introduced in IPv6 multicasting. In IPv4,multicasting was extension of the basic specification, while specifications of IPv6 require that all IPv6 nodes support multicasting. IPv6 explicitly limits the scope of a multicast address by using a fixed address field, whereas the scope was specified using TTL (Time to Live) of a multicast packet in IPv4.

Comparison

In IPv4, multicast tunnels were introduced to deploy multicasting .In IPv6,all routers should be multicast-capable, which means that we do not have to use multicast tunnels to deploy IPv6 multicasting. IPv4 multicasting use unicast addresses to identify a network interface. However, this is not suitable for IPv6,as an IPv6capable node may assign multiple addresses on a single interface, which tends to cause a configuration mismatch. In IPv6 ,to identify the interface the user must use specified interface index.

Implementation of multicasting
We have practically tested multicasting over IPv6 in IITK . Muticasting in IPv6 has also been tested across the router using the global scope address . For multicast testing we have used VideoLan Client media player which is a freeware.

VideoLAN Client (VLC) media player

VLC - the cross-platform media player and streaming server. VLC is a multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, ...) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. It can also be used as a server to stream in unicast or multicast in IPv4 or IPv6 on a high-bandwidth network.

Advantage of using multicasting in VLC

Problems encountered using unicast or broadcast are : with unicast, when a lot of clients want to receive the
stream, the network interface of the server becomes saturated.So the number of clients is very limited, especially when the stream is big.

with broadcast, the machines that do not want to

receive the stream are polluted and some devices do not like to receive huge broadcasts. If you want to send several streams at the same time, the network becomes oversaturated.

Advantage of using multicasting in VLC

With multicast, the packets are sent on the network to a multicast IP group which is designated by its IP address. The machines can join or leave a multicast group by sending a request to the network. The request is usually sent by the kernel of the operating system. The VLC takes care of asking the kernel of the operating system to send the join request. It is possible for one client to belong to several groups.

Showing a scenario giving example of multicasting

Server(vlc) Network Clients(vlc) stream --------------> ff1e::1 ---------------> client n1 |-------------> client n2 Server(vlc) Network Clients(vlc) <--------------- client n3 join join ff1e::1 Server(vlc) Network Clients(vlc) |-------------> client n1 stream --------------> ff1e::1 ---------------> client n2 |-------------> client n3

Scenario of multicasting
Server(vlc) Network Clients(vlc) <--------------- client n1 leave leave ff1e::1

Server(vlc) Network Clients(vlc) stream ---------------> ff1e::1 ---------------> client n2 |-------------> client n3

Installing VLC
For Fedora Core 3 :
Download the VLC Binaries packages vlc-binary.tar.gz

For Windows :
Download the self-extracting package vlc-0.8.1-win32.exe Above packages are available in

http://www.videolan.org/

To run the VLC

Type the following command to run VLC: $vlc This is the VLC media player:

UDP Streaming With VLC using the GUI

Server Send the Data
Select File Open File, and Browse to select a file. Select the Stream output checkbox, then the Settings button this opens a Stream Output window. Output Methods For multicasting, select UDP and write following : address : ff1e and port : 1234 Select the checkbox : Play locally

UDP Streaming
Stream Output window

UDP Streaming
Client Receive the Data
Open VLC on the receiving PC. Select File Open Network Stream. To join the session of multicast as sent by the server do the following : Select UDP/RTP multicast and write : address : ff1e and port : 1234 Click the OK button, and the VLC display window should open.

Reference
Further information about VLC can be obtained from : http://www.videolan.org/

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION Any Questions?