Netgear GSM7224v2 - 24-Port Layer 2 Managed Gigabit Switch ユーザーズマニュアル

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Chapter 3.  Configuring Switching Information 
 
ProSafe® Gigabit L3 Managed Stackable Switches Software Administration Manual 
IGMP Snooping 
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) Snooping is a feature that allows a switch to 
forward multicast traffic intelligently on the switch. Multicast IP traffic is traffic that is destined 
to a host group. Host groups are identified by class
 
D IP addresses, which range from 
224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Based on the IGMP query and report messages, the switch 
forwards traffic only to the ports that request the multicast traffic. This prevents the switch 
from broadcasting the traffic to all ports and possibly affecting network performance.
A traditional Ethernet network may be separated into different network segments to prevent 
placing too many devices onto the same shared media. Bridges and switches connect these 
segments. When a packet with a broadcast or multicast destination address is received, the 
switch will forward a copy into each of the remaining network segments in accordance with 
the IEEE MAC Bridge standard. Eventually, the packet is made accessible to all nodes 
connected to the network.
This approach works well for broadcast packets that are intended to be seen or processed by 
all connected nodes. In the case of multicast packets, however, this approach could lead to 
less efficient use of network bandwidth, particularly when the packet is intended for only a 
small number of nodes. Packets will be flooded into network segments where no node has 
any interest in receiving the packet. While nodes will rarely incur any processing overhead to 
filter packets addressed to unrequested group addresses, they are unable to transmit new 
packets onto the shared media for the period of time that the multicast packet is flooded. The 
problem of wasting bandwidth is even worse when the LAN segment is not shared, for 
example in full-duplex links.
Allowing switches to snoop IGMP packets is a creative effort to solve this problem. The 
switch uses the information in the IGMP packets as they are being forwarded throughout the 
network to determine which segments should receive packets directed to the group address.
From the IGMP Snooping link, you can access the following pages: