Subject: multicast and load balancing

From: Theo Pagtzis <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 31 May 2001 13:02:48 -0700

Hi all,

   I have been pondering on this one and I am trying to see if the rule
can be relaxed. However I need first to know what is the reason for
having this rule.

IGMPvX and MLD mention that the router has to be a Querier in the
particular interface so that multicast packets can be forwarded. When
one has two multicast enabled routers and would like to load balance
traffic between the two routers it seems to me that there is problem
with load balancing since only the interface in any of the 2 IGMP-enable
routers, with the lowest IPv6 addr will win the Querier election. So in
that case the second router cannot load balance multicast forwarding on
that link.

Does that make any sense?

Why should one enforce that only if the router is the querier of the
interface can it forward packets on that interface since any router with
a lower IP addr on that link would take its Querier status away..

Thanks

Theo

UCL/ Mobile Systems