Prerequisites for Configuring Multicast VPN
Enable IP multicast and configure the PIM interfaces using the tasks described in the “Configuring Basic IP Multicast” module.
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The Multicast VPN (MVPN) feature provides the ability to support multicast over a Layer 3 VPN. As enterprises extend the reach of their multicast applications, service providers can accommodate these enterprises over their Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) core network. IP multicast is used to stream video, voice, and data to an MPLS VPN network core.
Historically, point-to-point tunnels were the only way to connect through a service provider network. Although such tunneled networks tend to have scalability issues, they represented the only means of passing IP multicast traffic through a VPN.
Because Layer 3 VPNs support only unicast traffic connectivity, deploying MPLS in conjunction with a Layer 3 VPN allows service providers to offer both unicast and multicast connectivity to Layer 3 VPN customers.
Enable IP multicast and configure the PIM interfaces using the tasks described in the “Configuring Basic IP Multicast” module.
The update source interface for the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) peerings must be the same for all BGP peerings configured on the router in order for the default multicast distribution tree (MDT) to be configured properly. If you use a loopback address for BGP peering, then PIM sparse mode must be enabled on the loopback address.
MVPN does not support multiple BGP peering update sources.
Multiple BGP update sources are not supported and configuring them can break MVPN reverse path forwarding (RPF) checking. The source IP address of the MVPN tunnels is determined by the highest IP address used for the BGP peering update source. If this IP address is not the IP address used as the BGP peering address with the remote provider edge (PE) router, MVPN will not function properly.
PIM Dense mode is not supported on core network.
Extra traffic is noticed when the router acts as MVPN PE without any receivers attached. It is recommended to create an ACL and attach it to VRF to drop extra forwarded packets.
A maximum of 20 multicast VRFs are supported.
A maximum of 255 OIFs are supported.
MVPN GRE is supported only in video template.
Tx and Rx SPAN are not supported on PE routers configured with MVPN GRE.
You can only use single encapsulation per core/WAN interface.
Effective Cisco IOS XE 16.5.1, MVPN GRE with BDI interfaces in core will be is supported.
In case of SM in VRF, RP should be in ENCAP PE.
IPv6 is not supported MVPN GRE.
mLDP and MVPN GRE cannot be configured in the same VRF.
MVPN IP allows a service provider to configure and support multicast traffic in an MPLS VPN environment. This feature supports routing and forwarding of multicast packets for each individual VRF instance, and it also provides a mechanism to transport VPN multicast packets across the service provider backbone.
A VPN is network connectivity across a shared infrastructure, such as an ISP. Its function is to provide the same policies and performance as a private network, at a reduced cost of ownership, thus creating many opportunities for cost savings through operations and infrastructure.
An MVPN allows an enterprise to transparently interconnect its private network across the network backbone of a service provider. The use of an MVPN to interconnect an enterprise network in this way does not change the way that enterprise network is administered, nor does it change general enterprise connectivity.
Provides a scalable method to dynamically send information to multiple locations.
Provides high-speed information delivery.
Provides connectivity through a shared infrastructure.
MVPN introduces multicast routing information to the VPN routing and forwarding table. When a provider edge (PE) device receives multicast data or control packets from a customer edge (CE) router, forwarding is performed according to the information in the Multicast VPN routing and forwarding instance (MVRF). MVPN does not use label switching.
A set of MVRFs that can send multicast traffic to each other constitutes a multicast domain. For example, the multicast domain for a customer that wanted to send certain types of multicast traffic to all global employees would consist of all CE routers associated with that enterprise.
MVPN establishes a static default MDT for each multicast domain. The default MDT defines the path used by PE routers to send multicast data and control messages to every other PE router in the multicast domain.
If Source Specific Multicast (SSM) is used as the core multicast routing protocol, then the multicast IP addresses used for the default and data multicast distribution tree (MDT) must be configured within the SSM range on all PE routers.
MVPN also supports the dynamic creation of MDTs for high-bandwidth transmission. Data MDTs are a feature unique to Cisco IOS software. Data MDTs are intended for high-bandwidth sources such as full-motion video inside the VPN to ensure optimal traffic forwarding in the MPLS VPN core. The threshold at which the data MDT is created can be configured on a per-router or a per-VRF basis. When the multicast transmission exceeds the defined threshold, the sending PE router creates the data MDT and sends a User Datagram Protocol (UDP) message, which contains information about the data MDT to all routers on the default MDT. The statistics to determine whether a multicast stream has exceeded the data MDT threshold are examined once every second. After a PE router sends the UDP message, it waits 3 more seconds before switching over; 13 seconds is the worst case switchover time and 3 seconds is the best case.
Data MDTs are created only for (S, G) multicast route entries within the VRF multicast routing table. They are not created for (*, G) entries regardless of the value of the individual source data rate.
In the following example, a service provider has a multicast customer with offices in San Jose, New York, and Dallas. A one-way multicast presentation is occurring in San Jose. The service provider network supports all three sites associated with this customer, in addition to the Houston site of a different enterprise customer.
The default MDT for the enterprise customer consists of provider routers P1, P2, and P3 and their associated PE routers. PE4 is not part of the default MDT, because it is associated with a different customer. The figure shows that no data flows along the default MDT, because no one outside of San Jose has joined the multicast.
An employee in New York joins the multicast session. The PE router associated with the New York site sends a join request that flows across the default MDT for the multicast domain of the customer. PE1, the PE router associated with the multicast session source, receives the request. The figure depicts that the PE router forwards the request to the CE router associated with the multicast source (CE1a).
The CE router (CE1a) begins to send the multicast data to the associated PE router (PE1), which sends the multicast data along the default MDT. Through default MDT, traffic from CE1a is sent to all the PEs. Immediately sending the multicast data, PE1 recognizes that the multicast data exceeds the bandwidth threshold for which a data MDT should be created. Therefore, PE1 creates a data MDT, sends a message to all routers using the default MDT that contains information about the data MDT, and, three seconds later, begins sending the multicast data for that particular stream using the data MDT. Only PE2 has interested receivers for this source, so only PE2 will join the data MDT and receive traffic on it.
The other PE routers also receive traffic from the default MDT.
PE routers maintain a PIM relationship with other PE routers over the default MDT and a PIM relationship with its directly attached PE routers.
An MVRF, which is created per multicast domain, requires the device to create a tunnel interface from which all MVRF traffic is sourced. A multicast tunnel interface is an interface that the MVRF uses to access the multicast domain. It can be thought of as a conduit that connects an MVRF and the global MVRF. One tunnel interface is created per MVRF.
The mdt keyword has been added to the address-family ipv4 command to configure an MDT address-family session. MDT address-family sessions are used to pass the source PE address and MDT group address to PIM using Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) MDT Subaddress Family Identifier (SAFI) updates.
In a single autonomous system, if the default MDT for an MVPN is using PIM sparse mode (PIM-SM) with a rendezvous point (RP), then PIM is able to establish adjacencies over the Multicast Tunnel Interface (MTI) because the source PE and receiver PE discover each other through the RP. In this scenario, the local PE (the source PE) sends register messages to the RP, which then builds a shortest-path tree (SPT) toward the source PE. The remote PE, which acts as a receiver for the MDT multicast group, then sends (*, G) joins toward the RP and joins the distribution tree for that group.
However, if the default MDT group is configured in a PIM Source Specific Multicast (PIM-SSM) environment rather than a PIM-SM environment, the receiver PE needs information about the source PE and the default MDT group. This information is used to send (S, G) joins toward the source PE to build a distribution tree from the source PE (without the need for an RP). The source PE address and default MDT group address are sent using BGP.
When BGP extended communities are used, the PE loopback (source address) information is sent as a VPNv4 prefix using Route Distinguisher (RD) Type 2 (to distinguish it from unicast VPNv4 prefixes). The MDT group address is carried in a BGP extended community. Using a combination of the embedded source in the VPNv4 address and the group in the extended community, PE routers in the same MVRF instance can establish SSM trees to each other.
Note |
Prior to the introduction of MDT SAFI support, the BGP extended community attribute was used as an interim solution to advertise the IP address of the source PE and default MDT group before IETF standardization. A BGP extended community attribute in an MVPN environment, however, has certain limitations: it cannot be used in inter-AS scenarios (because the attribute is nontransitive), and it uses RD Type 2, which is not a supported standard and not supported effective with Cisco IOS Release 15.5(1)T and Cisco IOS Release 15.4(3)S. |
Cisco software releases that support the MDT SAFI, the source PE address and the MDT group address are passed to PIM using BGP MDT SAFI updates. The RD type has changed to RD type 0, and BGP determines the best path for the MDT updates before passing the information to PIM.
Note |
To prevent backward-compatibility issues, BGP allows the communication of the older style updates with peers that are unable to understand the MDT SAFI address family. |
Cisco software releases that support the MDT SAFI, the MDT SAFI address family needs to be explicitly configured for BGP neighbors using the address-family ipv4 mdt command. Neighbors that do not support the MDT SAFI still need to be enabled for the MDT SAFI in the local BGP configuration. Prior to the introduction of the MDT SAFI, additional BGP configuration from the VPNv4 unicast configuration was not needed to support MVPN.
Because the new MDT SAFI does not use BGP route-target extended communities, the regular extended community methods to filter these updates no longer apply. As a result, the match mdt-group route-map configuration command has been added to filter on the MDT group address using access control lists (ACLs). These route maps can be applied—inbound or outbound—to the IPv4 MDT address-family neighbor configuration.
When migrating a Cisco IOS release to the MDT SAFI, existing VPNv4 neighbors will be automatically configured for the MDT SAFI upon bootup based on the presence of an existing default MDT configuration (that is, pre-MDT SAFI configurations will be automatically converted to an MDT SAFI configuration upon bootup). In addition, when a default MDT configuration exists and a VPNv4 neighbor in BGP is configured, a similar neighbor in the IPv4 MDT address family will be automatically configured.
Note |
Because there is no VRF configuration on route reflectors (RRs), automigration to the MDT SAFI will not be triggered on RRs. The MDT SAFI configuration, thus, will need to be manually configured on RRs. Having a uniform MDT transmission method will reduce processing time on the routers (because MDT SAFI conversion is not necessary). |
We recommend that you configure the MDT SAFI on all routers that participate in the MVPN. Even though the benefits of the MDT SAFI are for SSM tree building, the MDT SAFI must also be configured when using MVPN with the default MDT group for PIM-SM. From the multicast point of view, the MDT SAFI is not required for MVPN to work within a PIM-SM core. However, in certain scenarios, the new address family must be configured in order to create the MTI. Without this notification, the MTI would not be created and MVPN would not function (even with PIM-SM).
For backward compatible sessions, extended communities must be enabled on all MDT SAFI peers. In a pure MDT SAFI environment, there is no need to configure extended communities explicitly for MVPN. However, extended communities will be needed for VPNv4 interior BGP (iBGP) sessions to relay the route-target. In a hybrid (MDT SAFI and pre-MDT SAFI) environment, extended communities must be configured to send the embedded source in the VPNv4 address and the MDT group address to MDT SAFI neighbors.
When moving from a pre-MDT SAFI to an MDT SAFI environment, the upmost care should be taken to minimize the impact to the MVPN service. The unicast service will not be affected, other than the outage due to the reload and recovery. To upgrade a network to support the MDT SAFI, we recommend that you perform the following steps:
Upgrade the PEs in the MVPN to a Cisco IOS release that supports the MDT SAFI. Upon bootup, the PE configurations will be automigrated to the MDT SAFI. For more information about the automigration to the MDT SAFI functionality, see Automigration to the MDT SAFI section.
After the PEs have been upgraded, upgrade the RRs and enable the MDT SAFI for all peers providing MVPN service. Enabling or disabling the MDT SAFI will reset the BGP peer relationship for all address families; thus, a loss of routing information may occur.
Note |
A multihomed BGP RR scenario, one of the RRs must be upgraded and configured last. The upgraded PEs will use this RR to relay MDT advertisements while the other RRs are being upgraded. |
The following policy configuration parameters are supported under the MDT SAFI:
Mandatory attributes and well-known attributes, such as the AS-path, multiexit discriminator (MED), BGP local-pref, and next-hop attributes.
Standard communities, community lists, and route maps.
Perform this task to configure a default MDT group for a VRF.
The default MDT group must be the same group configured on all devices that belong to the same VPN. The source IP address will be the address used to source the BGP sessions.
Command or Action | Purpose | |
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Step 1 |
enable Example:
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Enables privileged EXEC mode.
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Step 2 |
configure terminal Example:
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Enters global configuration mode. |
Step 3 |
ip multicast-routing distributed Example:
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Enables multicast routing. |
Step 4 |
ip multicast-routing vrf vrf-name distributed Example:
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Supports the MVPN VRF instance. |
Step 5 |
ip vrf vrf-name Example:
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Enters VRF configuration mode and defines the VPN routing instance by assigning a VRF name. See the Example: Configuring the MDT Address Family in BGP for Multicast VPN section for an alternate command. |
Step 6 |
mdt default group-address Example:
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Configures the multicast group address for the default MDT for a VRF.
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Perform this task to configure an MDT address family session on PE devices to establish MDT peering sessions for MVPN.
Before MVPN peering can be established through an MDT address family, MPLS and Cisco Express Forwarding (CEF) must be configured in the BGP network and multiprotocol BGP on PE devices that provide VPN services to CE devices.
Note |
The following policy configuration parameters are not supported:
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Command or Action | Purpose | |
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Step 1 |
enable Example:
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Enables privileged EXEC mode.
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Step 2 |
configure terminal Example:
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Enters global configuration mode. |
Step 3 |
router bgp as-number Example:
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Enters router configuration mode and creates a BGP routing process. |
Step 4 |
address-family ipv4 mdt Example:
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Enters address family configuration mode to create an IP MDT address family session. |
Step 5 |
neighbor neighbor-address activate Example:
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Enables the MDT address family for this neighbor. |
Step 6 |
neighbor neighbor-address send-community [both | extended | standard] Example:
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Enables community and (or) extended community exchange with the specified neighbor. |
Step 7 |
exit Example:
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Exits address family configuration mode and returns to router configuration mode. |
Step 8 |
address-family vpnv4 Example:
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Enters address family configuration mode to create a VPNv4 address family session. |
Step 9 |
neighbor neighbor-address activate Example:
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Enables the VPNv4 address family for this neighbor. |
Step 10 |
neighbor neighbor-address send-community [both | extended | standard] Example:
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Enables community and (or) extended community exchange with the specified neighbor. |
Step 11 |
end Example:
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Exits address family configuration mode and enters privileged EXEC mode. |
A data MDT group can include a maximum of 256 multicast groups per VPN per VRF per PE device. Multicast groups used to create the data MDT group are dynamically chosen from a pool of configured IP addresses.
Before configuring a default MDT group, the VPN must be configured for multicast routing as described in the "Configuring a Default MDT Group for a VRF" section.
All access lists needed when using the tasks in this module should be configured prior to beginning the configuration task. For information about how to configure an access list, see the “Creating an IP Access List and Applying It to an Interface” module.
Command or Action | Purpose | |
---|---|---|
Step 1 |
enable Example:
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Enables privileged EXEC mode.
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Step 2 |
configure terminal Example:
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Enters global configuration mode. |
Step 3 |
ip vrf vrf-name Example:
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Enters VRF configuration mode and defines the VPN routing instance by assigning a VRF name. See the Example: Configuring MVPN and SSM section for an alternate command. |
Step 4 |
mdt data group-address-range wildcard-bits [threshold kbps] [list access-list] Example:
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Specifies a range of addresses to be used in the data MDT pool.
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Step 5 |
mdt log-reuse Example:
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(Optional) Enables the recording of data MDT reuse and generates a syslog message when a data MDT has been reused. |
Step 6 |
end Example:
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Returns to privileged EXEC mode. |
Perform this task to limit the number of multicast routes that can be added in a device.
Before configuring a default MDT group, the VPN must be configured for multicast routing as described in the "Configuring a Default MDT Group for a VRF" section.
All access lists needed when using the tasks in this module should be configured prior to beginning the configuration task. For information about how to configure an access list, see the “ Creating an IP Access List and Applying It to an Interface ” module.
Command or Action | Purpose | |
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Step 1 |
enable Example:
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Enables privileged EXEC mode.
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Step 2 |
configure terminal Example:
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Enters global configuration mode. |
Step 3 |
ip multicast vrf vrf-name route-limit limit [threshold ] Example:
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Sets the mroute limit and the threshold parameters. |
Step 4 |
ip multicast mrinfo-filter access-list Example:
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Filters the multicast device information request packets for all sources specified in the access list. |
Step 1 |
enable Example:
Enables privileged EXEC mode.
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Step 2 |
show ip pim mdt bgp Example:
Displays information about the BGP advertisement of the RD for the MDT default group. |
Step 3 |
show ip pim vrf vrf-name mdt history interval minutes Example:
Displays the data MDTs that have been reused during the past configured interval. |
The following are some troubleshooting tips for MVPN:
Use the show ip pim vrf neighbor command to check that PE routers established a PIM neighbor relationship through the dynamic tunnel interface. If they did, then the Default MDT operates properly.
If the Default MDT does not function, use the show ip pim mdt bgp command to check that loopbacks of remote PE routers participating in MVPN are known by the local router. If they are not, verify that PIM is enabled on interfaces used as a source of MP BGP sessions.
Step 1 |
show ip pim [vrf vrf-name ] mdt send Example:
Displays detailed information about the MDT data group including MDT advertisements that the specified device has made. |
Step 2 |
show ip pim [vrf vrf-name ] mdt receive Example:
Displays detailed information about the MDT data group joined. |
Command or Action | Purpose | |
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Step 1 |
show ip mroute Example:
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Displays the contents of the IP multicast routing table in the provider's core. |
Step 2 |
show ip mroute vrf vrf name Example:
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Displays the multicast routing table in the client's VRF. |
In the following example, PIM-SSM is configured in the backbone. Therefore, the default and data MDT groups are configured within the SSM range of IP addresses. Inside the VPN, PIM-SM is configured and only Auto-RP announcements are accepted.
ip vrf vrf1
rd 1:1
route-target export 1:1
route-target import 1:1
mdt default 232.0.0.1
mdt data 232.0.1.0 0.0.0.255 threshold 500 list 101
!
ip pim ssm default
ip pim vrf vrf1 accept-rp auto-rp
In the following example, an alternate command is used to configure MVPN and SSM:
vrf definition vrf1
rd 101:1
route-target export 101:1
route-target import 101:1
!
address-family ipv4
mdt default 232.1.1.1
mdt data 232.5.1.1 0.0.0.255 threshold 500 list 101
exit-address-family
!
ip pim ssm default
ip pim vrf vrf1 accept-rp auto-rp
In the following example, multicast routing is enabled with a VPN routing instance named vrf1:
ip multicast-routing vrf vrf1 distributed
In the following example, an MDT address family session is configured on a PE router to establish MDT peering sessions for MVPN.
!
ip vrf test
rd 55:2222
route-target export 55:2222
route-target import 55:2222
mdt default 232.0.0.1
!
ip multicast-routing distributed
ip multicast-routing vrf test distributed
!
router bgp 55
.
.
.
!
address-family vpnv4
neighbor 192.168.1.1 activate
neighbor 192.168.1.1 send-community both
!
address-family ipv4 mdt
neighbor 192.168.1.1 activate
neighbor 192.168.1.1 send-community both
!
In the following example, an alternate command is used to configure an MDT address family session on a PE router to establish MDT peering sessions for MVPN:
vrf definition vrf1
rd 101:1
route-target export 101:1
route-target import 101:1
!
address-family ipv4
mdt default 232.1.1.1
.
.
.
ip multicast-routing distributed
ip multicast-routing vrf test distributed
!
router bgp 55
.
.
.
!
address-family vpnv4
neighbor 192.168.1.1 activate
neighbor 192.168.1.1 send-community both
!
address-family ipv4 mdt
neighbor 192.168.1.1 activate
neighbor 192.168.1.1 send-community both
In the following example, the VPN routing instance is assigned a VRF named VPN_A. The MDT default group for a VPN VRF is 239.1.1.1, and the multicast group address range for MDT groups is 239.2.2.0 with wildcard bits of 0.0.0.255:
ip vrf VPN_A
rd 2:200
route-target export 2:200
route-target import 2:200
mdt default 239.1.1.1
mdt data 239.2.2.0 0.0.0.255
The following is an alternate command to assign VRF to the VPN routing instance.
vrf definition VPN_A
rd 101:1
route-target export 101:1
route-target import 101:1
!
address-family ipv4
mdt default 232.1.1.1
mdt data 232.5.1.1 0.0.0.255 threshold 500 list 101
In the following example, the number of multicast routes that can be added to a multicast routing table is set to 500 and the threshold value of the number of mroutes that will cause a warning message to occur is set to 50:
ip multicast route-limit 500 50
ip multicast vrf VPN_A route-limit 500 50
no mpls traffic-eng auto-bw timers
!
ip multicast-routing distributed
ip multicast-routing vrf VPN_A distributed
!
ip pim ssm default
ip pim vrf VPN_A ssm default
!
interface loopback50
ip address 50.0.0.2 255.255.255.255
ip pim sparse-dense-mode
ip ospf 1 area 0
exit
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/1/0
no ip address
negotiation auto
service instance 1101 ethernet
encapsulation dot1q 1101
rewrite ingress tag pop 1 symmetric
bridge-domain 1101
!
interface BDI1101
ip vrf forwarding VPN_A
ip address 40.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
ip pim sparse-dense-mode
ip igmp version 3
ip ospf 2 area 0
end
The following is an alternate method to configure a physical interface or BDI under specified VRF:
interface GigabitEthernet0/1/0
no ip address
negotiation auto
service instance 1101 ethernet
encapsulation dot1q 1101
rewrite ingress tag pop 1 symmetric
bridge-domain 1101
!
interface BDI1101
vrf forwarding VPN_A
ip address 40.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
ip pim sparse-dense-mode
ip igmp version 3
ip ospf 2 area 0
end
interface ten 0/2/0
ip address 60.0.0.2 255.255.255.0
ip pim sparse-dense-mode
ip igmp version 3
ip ospf 1 area 0
end
bgp log-neighbor-changes
no bgp default ipv4-unicast
neighbor 50.0.0.4 remote-as 100
neighbor 50.0.0.4 update-source Loopback50
!
address-family ipv4
neighbor 50.0.0.4 activate
exit-address-family
address-family vpnv4
neighbor 50.0.0.4 activate
neighbor 50.0.0.4 send-community extended
exit-address-family
address-family ipv4 mdt
neighbor 50.0.0.4 activate
neighbor 50.0.0.4 send-community extended
exit-address-family
address-family ipv4 vrf VPN_A
redistribute connected
redistribute static
redistribute ospf 2
exit-address-family
!
!
router ospf 2 vrf VPN_A
redistribute connected subnets
redistribute static subnets
redistribute bgp 100 subnets
exit