Users Guide

time. A host joins and leaves a multicast group by sending an IGMP message to its IGMP Querier. The querier is the router that
surveys a subnet for multicast receivers and processes survey responses to populate the multicast routing table.
IGMP messages are encapsulated in IP packets, as shown in the following illustration.
Figure 33. IGMP Messages in IP Packets
Join a Multicast Group
There are two ways that a host may join a multicast group: it may respond to a general query from its querier or it may send an
unsolicited report to its querier.
Responding to an IGMP Query
The following describes how a host can join a multicast group.
1. One router on a subnet is elected as the querier. The querier periodically multicasts (to all-multicast-systems address
224.0.0.1) a general query to all hosts on the subnet.
2. A host that wants to join a multicast group responds with an IGMP Membership Report that contains the multicast address
of the group it wants to join (the packet is addressed to the same group). If multiple hosts want to join the same multicast
group, only the report from the first host to respond reaches the querier and the remaining hosts suppress their responses
(For how the delay timer mechanism works, refer to Adjusting Query and Response Timers).
3. The querier receives the report for a group and adds the group to the list of multicast groups associated with its outgoing
port to the subnet. Multicast traffic for the group is then forwarded to that subnet.
Sending an Unsolicited IGMP Report
A host does not have to wait for a general query to join a group. It may send an unsolicited IGMP Membership Report, also
called an IGMP Join message, to the querier.
Leaving a Multicast Group
The following describes how a host can leave a multicast group.
1. A host sends a membership report of type 0x17 (IGMP Leave message) to the all routers multicast address 224.0.0.2 when
it no longer cares about multicast traffic for a particular group.
2. The querier sends a Group-Specific Query to determine whether there are any remaining hosts in the group. There must
be at least one receiver in a group on a subnet for a router to forward multicast traffic for that group to the subnet.
3. Any remaining hosts respond to the query according to the delay timer mechanism (refer to Adjusting Query and
Response Timers). If no hosts respond (because there are none remaining in the group), the querier waits a specified
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) 284