Creating a multicast interface

You can create a multicast interface in a CPE template or on an individual device. When you create a multicast interface in a CPE template, the interface is automatically created on all devices that are using the template.

To create a multicast interface:

1. Create a multicast interface in one of the following ways:
   • If you want to create a multicast interface in a CPE template, go to the SD-WAN → CPE templates menu section, click the template and in the displayed settings area, select the Multicast → Interfaces tab.
   • If you want to create a multicast interface on a CPE device, go to the SD-WAN → CPE menu section, click the device, and in the displayed settings area, select the Multicast → Interfaces tab and select the Override check box.

   A table of multicast interfaces is displayed.

2. Click + Multicast interface.
3. This opens a window, in that window, in the Network interface drop-down list, select a previously created network interface which you want to use as a multicast interface.
4. Configure the PIM protocol on the multicast interface:
   1. In the PIM drop-down list, select Enabled. By default, the Disabled option is selected.
   2. If you want to switch the multicast interface to passive mode, select the Passive check box. In passive mode, multicast interfaces do not exchange control packets. This check box is cleared by default.
   3. If you want to prohibit the exchange of bootstrap packets on the multicast interface, clear the BSM check box. This check box is selected by default.
   4. If you want to prohibit the exchange of unicast bootstrap packets on the multicast interface, clear the Unicast BSM check box. This check box is selected by default.
   5. In the DR priority field, enter the priority of the multicast interface. The highest-priority multicast interface becomes the designated router of the LAN segment. The greater the value, the higher the priority of the multicast interface. Range of values: 1 to 4,294,967,295. The default setting is 1.
   6. In the Hello (sec.) field, enter the time interval in seconds that the multicast interface uses to send control packets to PIM peers. Range of values: 1 to 180. The default setting is 30.
   7. In the Hold (sec.) field, enter the time interval in seconds that the multicast interface uses to receive control packets from PIM peers. If no control packets are received from a peer within the specified time, the multicast interface considers the peer unavailable. Range of values: 1 to 630. The default setting is 105.
   8. If multiple IP addresses are assigned to a multicast interface and you want to use the specified IPv4 source address when sending PIM messages, enter the IPv4 address in the Source IP field.
5. Configure the IGMP protocol on the multicast interface:
   1. In the IGMP drop-down list, select Enabled. By default, the Disabled option is selected.
   2. In the Version drop-down list, select the version of the IGMP protocol on the multicast interface:
      • 2
      • 3 (default)
   3. In the Query interval (sec.) field, enter the time interval in seconds for sending queries from the multicast interface to clients. Queries are used to determine if multicast traffic needs to be sent to clients. Range of values: 1 to 250. The default setting is 125.
   4. In the Query response time (sec.) field, enter the time in seconds that the multicast interface must wait to receive responses from clients. If no response to a query is received from the client within the specified time, the multicast interface does not send traffic packets. Range of values: 1 to 125. The default setting is 10.
   5. If you want to specify multicast groups:
      1. Under Join group, click + Add.
      2. In the displayed field, enter the IPv4 address of the multicast group.
      3. If you want to connect the multicast interface to the specified source of the multicast group, under Source address, enter the IPv4 address of the source.

      The multicast group is specified and displayed in the Join group and Source address sections. You can specify multiple multicast groups; to delete a group, click the delete icon next to it.

      You need to specify multicast groups in one of the following cases:

      • The network segment has permanent clients to which you need to send traffic packets from a multicast group in a quick and stable way.
      • The network segment does not contain clients or hosts in the segment cannot send report messages, but traffic packets from a multicast group must be sent to this segment.
6. Click Save.

   The multicast interface is created and displayed in the table.

7. In the upper part of the settings area, click Save to save the settings of the CPE template or device.