IPv6 PIM

Introduction

IPv6 Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM) can forward IPv6 multicast packets with a unicast protocol.

IPv6 PIM efficiently routes IPv6 multicast traffic for groups that span wide area (and inter-domain) networks.

It works with all existing unicast routing protocols.

IPv6 PIM supports these modes:

Sparse Mode (PIM SM)
Source-Specific Multicast Mode(PIM SSM)

Notes:

You can enable only one mode of IPv6 PIM at a time.
Due to a Gaia Check Point security operating system that combines the strengths of both SecurePlatform and IPSO operating systems. OS limitation, a maximum of 31 PIM interfaces can be configured.

If more interface are configured, IPv6 PIM runs only on the first 31 interfaces.
You must configure an Access Control rule Set of traffic parameters and other conditions in a Rule Base (Security Policy) that cause specified actions to be taken for a communication session. that accepts IPv6 PIM traffic.

IPv6 PIM Sparse Mode (SM)

This mode is most useful when:

There are few IPv6 receivers in a group.
IPv6 senders and receivers are separated by WAN links.
The type of IPv6 traffic is intermittent.

IPv6 PIM Source-Specific Multicast (SSM) Mode

This mode is most useful when:

Most of IPv6 multicast traffic is from well-known sources.
It is desirable to avoid the overhead of shared tree and rendezvous point processing associated with sparse mode.

SSM is a version of PIM Sparse Mode. It is used in conjunction with MLD v2 to request or block multicast traffic from specific sources. For example, when a host requests traffic for a multicast group from a specific source, SSM sends PIM join/prune messages towards the source.

The multicast group IPv6 range from FF30::/96 to FF3F::/96 is reserved for SSM.

In addition, only shortest-path-tree (SPT) join/prune messages for these groups are accepted from neighboring routers. All other multicast groups are processed as in native Sparse Mode.

SSM does not need a Rendezvous Point (RP). The presence of an RP for any of the SSM groups does not have any influence on the processing of join/prune messages.