Configuration Note IP Multicast in IOS images last modified 11/13/00 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This file compares IP multicast feature sets and directions of major and early deployment IOS releases. For an overview of the types of Cisco IOS Software Releases, please take a look at: Cisco Software Release Strategy: http://www.cisco.com/warp/customer/cc/cisco/mkt/ios/rel/prodlit/537_pp.htm An overview of the overall feature sets of the major IOS releases can be found in: Comparing Cisco Software: http://www.cisco.com/warp/customer/cc/cisco/mkt/ios/rel/113/prodlit/705_pp.htm General Information / Recommendations ------------------------------------- 1. Do ONLY deploy IOS 12.0, a derived early deployment release or a newer release for IP Multicast. IOS 12.0 is the first major release of IOS that supports PIM-SM v2. It is available since 1998. PIM-SM v1 was the basic IP multicast routing protocol used in prior IOS versions dating back to 1995 (IOS 10.2). There are minor but partly unavoidable interoperability restrictions between PIMv1 and PIMv2 in IOS, also all the improvements to IP Multicast in IOS during the 1998/1998 time frame have almost completely only been integrated into 12.0 or later releases. When using IOS to inter-operate with other vendor products, PIM-SM v2 is almost always required because other vendors only started out with PIM-SM v2 and will not inter-operate with a pre IOS 12.0 release fully on PIM-SM. 2. Deploy the current maintenance release of the most stable main or early deployment release that contains your required set of features. This is a generic recommendation not specific to IP multicast. Mainline releases (12.0, 12.1, ...) are those that achieve most stability over their maintenance process, because their feature set is fixed at FCS (first customers shipment, i.e.: 12.1(1)) and only bug-fixes will go into maintenance releases. Other early deployment releases will over their lifetime introduce new platform or feature based improvement into their maintenance releases. Deploying these releases allows to more closely track new features or newly introduced hardware. Once at the end of their lifetime, the accumulated feature set will be moved into a bug-fix release. The specific mainline or early deployment release to use does thus depend on the required set of IP multicast (or other) features and the platform on which it is to be deployed. The descriptions below will state the first maintenance releases in which features were introduced. All supported images are located on CCO at www.cisco.com in the software center, which is accessible to customers with support contracts. As for IP multicast, there are no generic interoperability issues between different 12.0 or later releases. It is thus possible to deploy different images on different routers in a common network (to accommodate differing feature/hardware requirements). Release / feature set information: ---------------------------------- A) IOS 12.0 (main release) IOS 12.0 was FCS'ed in 1998. It is recommended for all multicast environments that do not have requirements for features of later releases. IOS 12.0 has the status of General Deployment (GD) since IOS 12.0(9). It is thus applicable for all environments. IOS 12.0 does include all multicast features previously available with IOS releases up to 11.3. This set includes: + IGMPv1 / IGMPv2 + PIMv1 + DVMRP interoperability + Multicast Fast-Switching + IP Multicast over ATM PTMP-VC + Stub IP Multicast routing + IP Multicast over Token Ring In addition, 12.0 supports: + PIMv2 - PIM sparse mode version 2 (introduced in 11.3T) + MTAG - Multicast TAG Switching (introduced in 11.3T) + MDFS - Multicast Distributed Fast Switching (introduced in 11.1CC) (Cisco 7500/12000) B) IOS 12.0S (ISP early deployment release) 12.0S is targeted for Internet Service Provider (ISP) type applications. It is supported ONLY for Cisco-12000/7500/7200. Unsupported images for other platforms may also be found via the ftpeng web page. IOS 12.0S includes new features and hardware support which is valuable especially for the application in ISP environments. For IP multicast, the features are: + MBGP - Multiprotocol BGP (introduced in 11.1CC) + MSDP - Multicast Source Distribution Protocol (introduced in 11.1CC) + MRM - Multicast Reachability Monitor (introduced in 12.0(5)S) + RGMP - Router-Port Group Management Protocol (introduced in 12.0(10)S) + MSDP-MIB - MSDP Management Information Base (introduced in 12.0(12)S) + SSM with IGMPv3, IGMPv3lite and URD (planned 12.0(15)S). IOS 12.0S is considered to be more stable than IOS 12.0T described below. IOS 12.0S is also the recommended upgrade path for ISPs currently using IOS 11.1CC. IOS 11.1CC is not recommended for IP multicast anymore due to the availability of IOS 12.0S! Note: There is no equivalent 12.1 early deployment release (no 12.1S). C) IOS 12.0T (technology early deployment release) The IOS 12.0T release introduced the non-ISP related IP multicast features over the 1998/1999 time frame. With 12.0(7)T also the MSDP/MBGP routing features were integrated. 12.0T is EOE (end of engineering) with 12.0(7)T. The feature set of 12.0T has become 12.1(1). Customers requiring any of the IP multicast features listed below for 12.0T are encouraged to deploy 12.1. The following IP multicast related features not found in 12.0S are included in 12.0T: + MNAT - Multicast NAT (introduced in 12.0(2)T) + IGMP-UDLR - IGMP Unidirectional Link Routing (introduced in 12.0(3)T) + PGM - Pragmatic Generic Multicast (introduced in 12.0(5)T) + UDPTN - UDP TelNet (introduced in 12.0(5)T) + MMLS - Multicast Multilayer Switching (introduced in 12.0(5)T) + MRM - Multicast Reachability Monitor (introduced in 12.0(5)T) + MBGP - Multiprotocol BGP (introduced in 12.0(7)T) + MSDP - Multicast Source Distribution Protocol (integrated in 12.0(7)T) Notes: The MMLS feature can be run on any router supported by 12.0T to enable MMLS on a Catalyst 5000 series switch. To enable MMLS on a Catalyst 6000 series switch, the router portion needs to run on the build in MSFC, which does not support 12.0T. See platform notes below. Starting with IOS 12.0(7)T, the syntax for BGP and MBGP has changed to in cooperate an "address-family" parameter. Please be aware of these changes when upgrading from a pre-IOS 12.0(7)T image to one that in cooperates these changes. (This new syntax was in cooperated in anticipation of the new address-family ipv6 which will be supported starting with IOS 12.2(1)T). D) IOS 12.1 (main release) IOS 12.1 does contain all the IP multicast features from IOS 12.0 and 12.0T. Note that this also includes the modified command syntax for BGP/MBGP. Like IOS 12.0, maintenance releases of IOS 12.1 will only include bug-fixes, so deployment should use 12.0 if stability but no upcoming features are needed. Please see the description of 12.0T above for the list of new (vs. 12.0) IP multicast features in 12.1. IOS 12.1 was FCS'ed in Q1'2000. IOS 12.1 is recommended for users requiring any of the features introduced in 12.0T, but not newer features. These newer features will go in the following (or other) feature/platform early deployment releases of 12.1: E) IOS 12.1E (enterprise early deployment release) IOS 12.1E is targeted at enterprise and wide-area applications and is provided for a limited set of platforms: Catalyst-6000, Cisco-7100, Cisco-7200 (Note: Cisco-7500 is planned to be supported in later maintenance releases). IOS 12.1E contains all features from IOS 12.1 and from IOS 12.0(7)XE1. IOS 12.0XE was the previous early deployment release to integrate new enterprise/wide-area features. 12.0(7)XE1 included all the features from 12.0(7)T. In addition, the following new IP multicast related features are included: + RGMP - Router-Port Group Management Protocol (integrated in 12.1(1)E) + SSM with IGMPv3, IGMP v3lite, URD (planned 12.1(5)E) F) IOS 12.1T (technology early deployment release) 12.1T is the 12.1 based release into which generic new features will be integrated. There will be 4 maintenance releases of 12.1T, 12.1(1)T...12.1(4)T, after which its feature set will be continued in 12.2 as a bug-fix-only release. The following IP multicast related features are introduced, or planned to be introduced with 12.1T: + PGM Host - Host stack for PGM (12.1(1)T, 3/00) + Bidirectional PIM (12.1(2)T, 5/00) + Source Specific Multicast (no IGMPv3) (12.1(3)T, 7/00) + MVoIP (Hoot & Holler) (12.1(3)T, 7/00) + SSM with IGMPv3, IGMP v3lite, URD (12.1(5)T, 11/00) + RGMP (12.1(5)T, 11/00) + State-Refresh for PIM-DM (12.1(5)T, 11/00) + MSDP-MIB - MSDP Management Information Base (12.1(5)T, 11/00) + IGMP Proxy and UDLR Tunnel enhancements (12.1(5)T, 11/00) Note: Cisco IOS 12.1(4)T was deferred, so features targeted for that release are now released with 12.1(5)T. Platforms: The main and technology early deployment releases are unless otherwise noted supported for at least the set of "generic" cisco routers: 1000 series, 1600 series, 2500 series, 2600 series, 3600 series, 4000 series, 7[12]00 series, 7500 series, 12000 series. Catalyst 4000 Currently available Catalyst 4000 switches support the same set of IP multicast related features on their supervisor engines as Catalyst 5000 switches: CGMP, GMRP, IGMP Snooping and RGMP. MMLS is not supported because there is no multi-layer switching support on Catalyst 4000. Catalyst 5000 The supervisor engine of the Catalyst 5000 series does run CatOS. The following IP multicast related features are supported: + CGMP - Cisco Group Management Protocol (introduced in 2.2) + GMRP - GARP Multicast Registration Protocol (introduced in 5.1) + IGMP Snooping (introduced in 4.1) + MMLS - Multicast Multilayer Switching (introduced in 5.1) + RGMP - Router-Port Group Management Protocol (introduced in 5.4) Notes: + IGMP Snooping and RGMP do require Supervisor Engine type IIG, IIIG, III/IIIF + NFFC II or Catalyst 2926G switch + MMLS and GMRP require a Supervisor Engine type IIG, IIIG or III/IIIF + NFFC II + CGMP and MMLS depend on an (external or internal) router running software that also supports this feature. IGMP snooping in CatOS does require a router being IGMP querier (any router supporting IGMP). RGMP will only benefit attached routers also supporting RGMP. The Catalyst-5000 RSM (Route Switch Module) is a Cisco-7500/RSP derived router blade for the Catalyst 5000 series. It is an autonomous router that is supported by the main release and the technology early deployment releases of 12.0 and later IOS. The Catalyst-5000 RSFC (Route Switch Feature Card) is an optional router feature card for the Supervisor IIG/IIIG. It is similar to the MSFC in the Catalyst 6000. The RSFC is supported by IOS 12.0W5, which supports the IP multicast features from IOS 12.0 mainline plus MMLS. Catalyst 6000 The currently available Catalyst 6000 series consists of a multi-layer architecture, consisting of a layer-2 switching core, a multi layer flow switching engine (PFC - policy feature card) and an optional router, included as a feature card on the supervisor engine, called MSFC (multi service feature card). IOS with support for MMLS can be run in two variants: a) CatOS / IOS: On the MSFC, IOS is run, and on the supervisor engine CatOS. This combination is supported with CatOS 5.3 or later on the supervisor engine and IOS 12.0(3)XE2 or later (IOS 12.1E) on the MSFC. b) Native IOS: On the supervisor engine IOS 12.0(7)XE1 or later (IOS 12.1E) is loaded, which will run natively both on the supervisor engine and the MSFC. IOS 12.0(7)XE1 is derived from 12.0(7)T. It includes the multicast features from that release. There will be no further IOS 12.0(n)XE maintenance releases. Instead, further development will be based on IOS 12.1E. When running CatOS, the supervisor engine provides for the following IP multicast related features: + IGMP Snooping (introduced in 5.1) + GMRP - GARP Multicast Registration Protocol (introduced in 5.2) + MMLS - Multicast Multilayer Switching (introduced in 5.3) + RGMP - Router-Port Group Management Protocol (introduced in 5.4) When running IOS native, the supervisor engine does not yet provide for GMRP or RGMP. RGMP is planned to be introduced with 12.1(3)E in 6/00. Notes: + MMLS is only provided for in conjunction with MMLS on the MSFC, an external router (like on the Catalyst 5000) is not supported. IGMP snooping in CatOS does require a router (like the MSFC) being IGMP querier. In the native IOS version, the supervisor engine can act as an IGMP querier itself. + Switch side CGMP will not supported on the supervisor engine of the Catalyst 6000, because every Catalyst 6000 supervisor engine supports IGMP Snooping. The router side CGMP is supported on the MSFC in all releases. Cisco 6400-NRP The Cisco-6400-NRP specific platform early deployment release, based on 12.0T is called 12.0DC. 12.0(7)DC contains the same IP Multicast features as 12.0(7)T. The next platform early deployment release for the Cisco 6400-NRP will be based on 12.1T. Catalyst 8500 The platform early deployment release for the catalyst-8500 series is 12.0W5, which is based on IOS 12.0 mainline and contains the same IP multicast features. MSDP and MBGP will be supported in the upcoming 12.1(4)E release for the Catalyst--8500 platform. Notes: IOS 11.1CC, the predecessor to IOS 12.0S does support MBGP/MSDP, but in addition to not supporting PIMv2, IOS 11.1CC images do like all other pre-IOS 12.0 images also not include important optimizations, fixes, or newer commands/features found in 12.0 images.