ProSafe 7000 Managed NETGEAR Switch Software Administration ...

28. MLD
Multicast Listener Discovery
This chapter provides the following examples:
• Configure MLD on page 439
• MLD Snooping on page 452
Chapter 28. MLD
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Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol enables IPv6 routers to discover multicast listeners,
the nodes that are configured to receive multicast data packets, on its directly attached
interfaces. The protocol specifically discovers which multicast addresses are of interest to its
neighboring nodes and provides this information to the active multicast routing protocol that
makes decisions on the flow of multicast data packets. Periodically, the multicast router sends
general queries requesting multicast address listener information from systems on an attached
networks. These queries are used to build and refresh the multicast address listener state on the
attached networks. In response to the queries, multicast listeners reply with membership reports.
These membership reports specify their multicast addresses listener state and their desired set
of sources with current-state multicast address records. The multicast router also processes
unsolicited filter- mode-change records and source-list-change records from systems that want
to indicate interest in receiving or not receiving traffic from particular sources.
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