PIM-DM is configured, Now What?

[turbo_engine26]

Hello,

Sorry if you find this question not related to any multicast routing but i gave up googling and searching the internet upside down to find an appropriate multicast application for testing.

So, i've configured my first multicast case study which is PIM-DM and all routers are ready to deliver multicast traffic, Now What? ... I decided to test my configuration by using a multicast traffic generator and it worked but where is the fun in that? .. Then, i thought about streaming a video from a specified source to some group members. However, i couldn't find a streaming application that supports multicasting. For example, i've tried Tversity, Windows Media Player and VideoLAN but didn't see any settings on them that supports a configuration of sources and groups for multicasting. Also, i looked at Windows Media Services but it's a headache because it is a client/server solution that will make me read its deployment guide, setting up a server, ....etc. I need a quick multicast-enabled app that is easy to configure just to test my PIM configuration.

Can anyone please guide me on how to find a multicast-enabled application?

Regards,

A.M.

[cadet alain]

Hi,

VideoLan VLC supports multicasting but be sure the TTL is not set to 1.

Otherwise you can ping the multicast address for testing.

Alain.

[Jon Marshall]

As Alain says, VideoLan is the easy one to use.

You simply fire up VLC on one PC and setup a network stream with udp and give it a multcast address (TTL >  number of L3 hops) and then fire up another VLC on another computer and connect to the stream.

The quick and easy way without using external software is on the router you want to receive the multicast stream under the ethernet interface -

ip igmp join-group

then on the router you want to act as the source use an extended ping and make the destination address the same multicast group.

Jon

[turbo_engine26]

Okay, i've read the VLC's documentation and can now find where to configure the stream. However, at the receiving host, i can't connect to the stream. In the destination section in VLC, i selected UDP (legacy) and typed the group address as mentioned in the documentation. Also, i got about 3 (*,G) entries on every router to the destination. I think VLC generates a default group address to use instead of creating a new one.

Entries:

(*,239.255.255.254) <--- this is the SAP protocol (i didn't even configued SAP)

(*.,224.0.1.40) <--- this is the Cisco-RP-Discovery message part of Auto-RP process (don't know what it is doing here since i configured DM not SM)

(*,224.2.127.254) <--- Default generated group address by VLC (didn't configure that)

I know that VLC configuration shouldn't be discussed here but if you have configured VLC before, please let me know.

HTH

A.M.

[cadet alain]

Hi,

why don't you just try with the trick Jon told you about: on a router or switch on an interface : ip igmp join

then from another router : ping

Regards.

Alain.

[turbo_engine26]

Yes, I did that and it worked but i didn't see any mroute entries created. I want a real multicast traffic to pass in order to check the entries and completely understand the multicast routers behavior. As i understood so far, the entries are created only when actual multicast traffic passes from the source not just using extended ICMP.

HTH

A.M.

[cadet alain]

Hi,

On the CCIE lab they don't have a multicast application to test so they do it the way Jon told you.There is no difference between a ping to multicast and a UDP multicast application regarding the PIM and IGMP processes.

Alain.

[turbo_engine26]

Hi,

In multicasting, i care about my own entertainement not only CCIE. Else, i care only about CCIE

HTH

AM

[Jon Marshall]

You should see the mroute entries created on your intermediate routers using the ping way. It is to all intents and purposes multicast traffic as it has an address of 224.x.x.x

Whenever i tested using that way i could see all the mroute entries with both PIM sparse and dense mode. So i'm not sure what is happening in your lab.

With dense mode you should see the traffic flooded to all routers and the mroute tables populated.

With sparse mode if you start the ping first you should see both (*,G) and the SPT entries.

Note i was also testing using GNS3.

As for VLC, it does keep changing depending on the version you are using. Which version of VLC are you using ?

Jon

[turbo_engine26]

Okay, i got it working now. The source was misconfigured and i can see the entry for the group i created on the source but still can't receive the stream on the other end. I am using VLC v1.1.5, below is the current VLC configuration:

Source Config:

Media --> Streaming

Source: .avi file

Destination: UDP (Legacy) -- Group Address: 228.1.1.2

Options: TTL=6

Destination Config:

Media --> Open Network Stream

then typed: udp://228.1.1.2:1234 (took it from some forum and it worked with one guy in the forum)

But nothing happened ... I also tried RTP and RTSP

HTH

AM

[sezaar]

hello,,

Try to downgrade the VLC version to 0.8.6 and try again

TTL always more than 1 ,, 6 is good

good luck