A Router-Based Technique for Monitoring the Next-Generation of 
Internet Multicast Protocols

Prashant Rajvaidya, and  Kevin C. Almeroth
Department of Computer Science
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106-5110
{prash, almeroth}@cs.ucsb.edu

Most of the tools available for monitoring multicast have only
marginal utility in today's multicast infrastructure. These tools
lack the ability to handle the latest routing protocols because
they rely on application layer data like the Realtime Transport
Protocol (RTP). Our goal is to develop a system that monitors
multicast at the network layer; that can provide functionality
for all of the network management tasks; and that can be easily
extended to monitor the evolving set of multicast protocols.  To
this end, we have developed Mantra, a tool for collecting data
from multicast routers, analyzing the collected data and
presenting realtime results. Using collected data, Mantra creates
interactive graphs depicting the state of the multicast
infrastructure. Results from Mantra are being used to monitor
multicast usage and deployment, as well as routing protocol
deployment and performance. In addition, the results are being
used to detect common anomalies and to troubleshoot frequent
routing problems. In this paper, we discuss the issues related to
multicast monitoring, describe the existing efforts in the field
and present the design of Mantra. In addition, we present results
based on data collected over a 6 months period by monitoring the
multicast traffic at two points: (1) at the Federal
IntereXchange--West (FIXW) router, and (2) an on-campus router.

Keywords:   Multicast, Network Management, Network Layer Monitoring, 
Measurement, Routing.