A Solution for Irregular IP Multicast Packet Flooding -- For Heavy Traffic IP Multicast Communication

When an IP Multicast network is constructed on a switch-based network, many IP Multicast packet broadcasts are generated, and these broadcasts cause trouble for all of the other kinds of communication. To solve this problem, implementing IGMP Snooping on various switches has been proposed. However, some switches have insufficient IP Multicast packet-handling capability. This problem is also mentioned in RFC4541. In this paper, we propose the IGMP Snooping Activator (ISA) mechanism as a way to solve the IP Multicast packet-handling problem. The ISA transmits dummy IGMP Queries to maintain the IP Multicast network, and it joins the flooding IP Multicast group to activate IGMP Snooping in switches that are unable to handle IP Multicast packets. The experimental evaluation shows the effectiveness of our proposed method: the network load decreases because of the method's effective restraint of IP Multicast packet flooding.