Internet Engineering Task Force                S. Deering, Cisco Systems
IPng Working Group                                 W. Fenner, Xerox PARC
INTERNET-DRAFT                                          B. Haberman, IBM
Expires September 1998                                        March 1998


              Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6

                      draft-ietf-ipngwg-mld-00.txt


Status of this Memo

This document is an Internet Draft.   Internet Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering  Task Force (IETF), its  Areas,
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Distribution of this document is unlimited.

                                Abstract

     This document specifies the protocol used by an IPv6 router to
     discover the presence of multicast listeners (that is, nodes
     wishing to receive multicast packets) on its directly attached
     links, and to discover specifically which multicast addresses are
     of interest to those neighboring nodes.  This protocol is referred
     to as Multicast Listener Discovery or MLD.

     MLD is derived from version 2 of IPv4's Internet Group Management
     Protocol [IGMPv2].  One important difference to note is that MLD
     uses ICMPv6 [ICMPv6] (IP Protocol 58) message types, rather than
     IGMP (IP Protocol 2) message types.

This document is a product of the IP Next Generation working group
within the Internet Engineering Task Force.  Comments are solicited and
should be addressed to the working group's mailing list at
ipng@sunroof.Eng.Sun.COM and/or the author(s).



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1.  Definitions

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED",  "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [KEYWORDS].

2.  Introduction

The purpose of Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) is to enable each IPv6
router to discover the presence of multicast listeners (that is, nodes
wishing to receive multicast packets) on its directly attached links,
and to discover specifically which multicast addresses are of interest
to those neighboring nodes.  This information is then provided to
whichever multicast routing protocol is being used by the router, in
order to ensure that multicast packets are delivered to all links where
there are interested receivers.

MLD is an asymmetric protocol, specifying different behaviors for
multicast listeners and for routers.  For those multicast addresses to
which a router itself is listening, the router performs both parts of
the protocol, including responding to its own messages.

If a router has more than one interface to the same link, it need
perform the router part of MLD over only one of those interfaces.
Listeners, on the other hand, must perform the listener part of MLD on
all interfaces from which an application or upper-layer protocol has
requested reception of multicast packets.

MLD is a sub-protocol of ICMPv6, that is, MLD message types are a subset
of the set of ICMPv6 messages, and MLD messages are identified in IPv6
packets by a preceding Next Header value of 58.  All MLD messages
described in this document are sent with a link-local IPv6 Source
Address, an IPv6 Hop Limit of 1, and an IPv6 Router Alert option [RTR-
ALERT] in a Hop-by-Hop Options header.

MLD messages have the following format:















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 0                   1                   2                   3
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|     Type      |     Code      |          Checksum             |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|     Maximum Response Delay    |          Reserved             |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                                                               |
+                                                               +
|                                                               |
+                       Multicast Address                       +
|                                                               |
+                                                               +
|                                                               |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+


2.1.  Type

     There are three types of MLD messages:

     Multicast Listener Query (Type = decimal 130)

          There are two subtypes of Multicast Listener Query messages:
          - General Query, used to learn which multicast addresses have
            listeners on an attached link.
          - Multicast-Address-Specific Query, used to learn if a
            particular multicast address has any listeners on an
            attached link.
          These two subtypes are differentiated by the contents of the
          Multicast Address field, as described in section 2.6.

     Multicast Listener Report (Type = decimal 131)

     Multicast Listener Done (Type = decimal 132)

     In the rest of this document, the above messages types are referred
     to simply as "Query", "Report", and "Done".

2.2.  Code

     Initialized to zero by the sender; ignored by receivers.

2.3.  Checksum

     The standard ICMPv6 checksum, covering the entire MLD message plus
     a "pseudo-header" of IP6 header fields [ICMPv6,IPv6].



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2.4.  Maximum Response Delay

     The Maximum Response Delay field is meaningful only in Query
     messages, and specifies the maximum allowed delay before sending a
     responding Report, in units of milliseconds.  In all other
     messages, it is set to zero by the sender and ignored by receivers.

     Varying this value allows the routers to tune the "leave latency"
     (the time between the moment the last node on a link ceases
     listening to a particular multicast address and moment the routing
     protocol is notified that there are no longer any listeners for
     that address), as discussed in section 6.8.  It also allows tuning
     of the burstiness of MLD traffic on a link, as discussed in section
     6.3.

2.5.  Reserved

     Initialized to zero by the sender; ignored by receivers.

2.6.  Multicast Address

     In a Query message, the Multicast Address field is set to zero when
     sending a General Query, and set to a specific IPv6 multicast
     address when sending a Multicast-Address-Specific Query.

     In a Report or Done message, the Multicast Address field holds a
     specific IPv6 multicast address to which the message sender is
     listening or is ceasing to listen, respectively.


2.7.  Other fields

     The length of a received MLD message is computed by taking the IPv6
     Payload Length value and subtracting the length of any IPv6
     extension headers present between the IPv6 header and the MLD
     message.  If that length is greater than 24 octets, that indicates
     that there are other fields present beyond the fields described
     above, perhaps belonging to a future backwards-compatible version
     of MLD.  An implementation of the version of MLD specified in this
     document MUST NOT send an MLD message longer than 24 octets and
     MUST ignore anything past the first 24 octets of a received MLD
     message.  In all cases, the MLD checksum MUST be computed over the
     entire MLD message, not just the first 24 octets.








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3.  Protocol Description

Note that defaults for timer values are described later in this
document.  Timer and counter names appear in square brackets.

Routers use MLD to learn which multicast addresses have listeners on
each of their attached links.  Each router keeps a list, for each
attached link, of which multicast addresses have listeners on that link,
and a timer associated with each of those addresses.  Note that the
router needs to learn only that listeners for a given multicast address
are present on a link; it does NOT need to learn the identity (e.g.,
unicast address) of those listeners or even how many listeners are
present.

For each attached link, a router selects one of its link-local unicast
addresses on that link to be used as the IPv6 Source Address in all MLD
packets it transmits on that link.

With respect to each of its attached links, a router may assume one of
two roles: Querier or Non-Querier.  There is normally only one Querier
per link.  All routers start up as a Querier on each of their attached
links.  If a router hears a Query message whose IPv6 Source Address is
numerically less than its own selected address for that link, it MUST
become a Non-Querier on that link.  If [Other Querier Present Interval]
passes without receiving, from a particular attached link, any Queries
from a router with an address less than its own, a router resumes the
role of Querier on that link.

A Querier for a link periodically [Query Interval] sends a General Query
on that link, to solicit reports of all multicast addresses of interest
on that link.  On startup, a router SHOULD send [Startup Query Count]
General Queries spaced closely together [Startup Query Interval] on all
attached links in order to quickly and reliably discover the presence of
multicast listeners on those links.

General Queries are sent to the link-scope all-nodes multicast address
(FF02::1), with a Multicast Address field of 0, and a Maximum Response
Delay of [Query Response Interval].

When a node receives a General Query, it sets a delay timer for each
multicast address to which it is listening on the interface from which
it received the Query, EXCLUDING the link-scope all-nodes address and
any multicast addresses of scope 0 (reserved) or 1 (node-local).  Each
timer is set to a different random value, using the highest clock
granularity available on the node, selected from the range (0, Maximum
Response Delay] with Maximum Response Delay as specified in the Query
packet.




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When a node receives a Multicast-Address-Specific Query, if it is
listening to the queried Multicast Address on the interface from which
the Query was received, it sets a delay timer for that address to a
random value selected from the range (0, Maximum Response Delay], as
above.  If a timer for the address is already running, it is reset to
the new random value only if the requested Maximum Response Delay is
less than the remaining value of the running timer.

If a node's timer for a particular multicast address on a particular
interface expires, the node transmits a Report to that address via that
interface; the address being reported is carried in both the IPv6
Destination Address field and the MLD Multicast Address field of the
Report packet.  The IPv6 Hop Limit of 1 (as well as the presence of a
link-local IPv6 Source Address) prevent the packet from travelling
beyond the link to which the reporting interface is attached.

If a node receives another node's Report from an interface for a
multicast address while it has a timer running for that same address on
that interface, it stops its timer and does not send a Report for that
address, thus suppressing duplicate reports on the link.

When a router receives a Report from a link, if the reported address is
not already present in the router's list of multicast address having
listeners on that link, the reported address is added to the list, its
timer is set to [Multicast Listener Interval], and its appearance is
made known to the router's multicast routing component.  If a Report is
received for a multicast address that is already present in the router's
list, the timer for that address is reset to [Multicast Listener
Interval].  If an address's timer expires, it is assumed that there are
no longer any listeners for that address present on the link, so it is
deleted from the list and its disappearance is made known to the
multicast routing component.

When a node starts listening to a multicast address on an interface, it
should immediately transmit an unsolicited Report for that address on
that interface, in case it is the first listener on the link.  To cover
the possibility of the initial Report being lost or damaged, it is
recommended that it be repeated once or twice after short delays
[Unsolicited Report Interval].  (A simple way to accomplish this is to
send the initial Report and then act as if a Muticast-Address-Specific
Query was received for that address, and set a timer appropriately).

When a node ceases to listen to a multicast address on an interface, if
the node was the most recent reporter of that address on that
interface's link (i.e., if its report of that address in response to the
most recently received Query was not suppressed by reception of a
neighbor's Report), it SHOULD send a single Done message to the link-
scope all-routers multicast address (FF02::2), carrying in its Multicast



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Address field the address to which it is ceasing to listen.  If the node
was not the most recent reporter of the address, it MAY send nothing, as
it is highly likely that there is another listener for that address
still present on the same link.

When a Querier receives a Done message from a link, if the Multicast
Address identified in the message is present in the Querier's list of
addresses having listeners on that link, the Querier sends [Last
Listener Query Count] Multicast-Address-Specific Queries, one every
[Last Listener Query Interval] to that multicast address.  These
Multicast-Address-Specific Queries have their Maximum Response Delay set
to [Last Listener Query Interval].  If no Reports for the address are
received from the link after the response delay of the last query has
passed, the routers on the link assume that the address no longer has
any listeners there; the address is therefore deleted from the list and
its disappearance is made known to the multicast routing component.  Any
Querier to non-Querier transition is ignored during this time; the same
router keeps sending the Multicast-Address-Specific Queries.

Non-Queriers MUST ignore Done messages.

When a non-Querier receives a Multicast-Address-Specific Query, if its
timer value for the identified multicast address is greater than [Last
Listener Query Count] times the Maximum Response Delay specified in the
message, it sets the address's timer to that latter value.


























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4.  Node State Transition Diagram

Node behavior is more formally specified by the state transition diagram
below.  A node may be in one of three possible states with respect to
any single IPv6 multicast address on any single interface:

- "Non-Listener" state, when the node is not listening to the address on
  the interface (i.e., no upper-layer protocol or application has
  requested reception of packets to that multicast address).  This is
  the initial state for all multicast addresses on all interfaces; it
  requires no storage in the node.

- "Delaying Listener" state, when the node is listening to the address
  on the interface and has a report delay timer running for that
  address.

- "Idle Listener" state, when the node is listening to the address on
  the interface and does not have a report delay timer running for that
  address.

There are five significant events that can cause MLD state transitions:

- "start listening" occurs when the node starts listening to the address
  on the interface.  It may occur only in the Non-Listener state.

- "stop listening" occurs when the node stops listening to the address
  on the interface.  It may occur only in the Delaying Listener and Idle
  Listener states.

- "query received" occurs when the node receives either a valid General
  Query message, or a valid Multicast-Address-Specific Query message.
  To be valid, the Query message MUST come from a link-local IPv6 Source
  Address, be at least 24 octets long, and have a correct MLD checksum.
  The Multicast Address field in the MLD message must contain either
  zero (a General Query) or a valid multicast address (a Multicast-
  Address-Specific Query).  A General Query applies to all multicast
  addresses on the interface from which the Query is received.  A
  Multicast-Address-Specific Query applies to a single multicast address
  on the interface from which the Query is received.  Queries are
  ignored for addresses in the Non-Listener state.

- "report received" occurs when the node receives a valid MLD Report
  message.  To be valid, the Report message MUST come from a link-local
  IPv6 Source Address, be at least 24 octets long, and have a correct
  MLD checksum.  A Report applies only to the adress identified in the
  Multicast Address field of the Report, on the interface from which the
  Report is received.  It is ignored in the Non-Listener or Idle
  Listener state.



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- "timer expired" occurs when the report delay timer for the address on
  the interface expires.  It may occur only in the Delaying Listener
  state.

All other events, such as receiving invalid MLD messages or MLD message
types other than Query or Report, are ignored in all states.

There are seven possible actions that may be taken in response to the
above events:

- "send report" for the address on the interface.  The Report message is
  sent to the address being reported.

- "send done" for the address on the interface.  If the flag saying we
  were the last node to report is cleared, this action MAY be skipped.
  The Done message is sent to the link-scope all-routers address
  (FF02::2).

- "set flag" that we were the last node to send a report for this
  address.

- "clear flag" since we were not the last node to send a report for this
  address.

- "start timer" for the address on the interface, using a delay value
  chosen uniformly from the interval (0, Maximum Response Delay], where
  Maximum Response Delay is specified in the Query.  If this is an
  unsolicited Report, the timer is set to a delay value chosen uniformly
  from the interval (0, [Unsolicited Report Interval] ].

- "reset timer" for the address on the interface to a new value, using a
  delay value chosen uniformly from the interval (0, Maximum Response
  Delay], as described in "start timer".

- "stop timer" for the address on the interface.

In all of the following state transition diagrams, each state transition
arc is labeled with the event that causes the transition, and, in
parentheses, any actions taken during the transition.  Note that the
transition is always triggered by the event; even if the action is
conditional, the transition still occurs.










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                              ________________
                             |                |
                             |                |
                             |                |
                             |                |
                   --------->|  Non-Listener  |<---------
                  |          |                |          |
                  |          |                |          |
                  |          |                |          |
                  |          |________________|          |
                  |                   |                  |
                  | stop listening    | start listening  | stop listening
                  | (stop timer,      |(send report,     | (send done if
                  |  send done if     | set flag,        |  flag set)
                  |  flag set)        | start timer)     |
          ________|________           |          ________|________
         |                 |<---------          |                 |
         |                 |                    |                 |
         |                 |<-------------------|                 |
         |                 |   query received   |                 |
         |     Delaying    |    (start timer)   |      Idle       |
    ---->|     Listener    |------------------->|     Listener    |
   |     |                 |   report received  |                 |
   |     |                 |    (stop timer,    |                 |
   |     |                 |     clear flag)    |                 |
   |     |_________________|------------------->|_________________|
   | query received    |        timer expired
   | (reset timer if   |        (send report,
   |  Max Resp Delay   |         set flag)
   |  < current timer) |
    -------------------


The link-scope all-nodes address (FF02::1) is handled as a special case.
The node starts in Idle Listener state for that address on every
interface, never transitions to another state, and never sends a Report
or Done for that address.

MLD messages are never sent for multicast addresses whose scope is 0
(reserved) or 1 (node-local).










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5.  Router State Transition Diagram

Router behavior is more formally specified by the state transition
diagrams below.

A router may be in one of two possible states with respect to any single
attached link:

- "Querier", when this router is designated to transmit MLD Queries on
  this link.

- "Non-Querier", when there is another router designated to transmit MLD
  Queries on this link.

The following three events can cause the router to change states:

- "query timer expired" occurs when the timer set for query transmission
  expires.

- "query received from a router with a lower IP address" occurs when a
  valid MLD Query is received from a router on the same link with a
  lower IPv6 Source Address. To be valid, the Query message MUST come
  from a link-local IPv6 Source Address, be at least 24 octets long, and
  have a correct MLD checksum.

- "other querier present timer expired" occurs when the timer set to
  note the presence of another querier with a lower IP address on the
  link expires.

There are three actions that may be taken in response to the above
events:

- "start general query timer" for the attached link to [Query Interval].

- "start other querier present timer" for the attached link to [Other
  Querier Present Interval].

- "send general query" on the attached link.  The General Query is sent
  to the link-scope all-nodes address (FF02::1), and has a Maximum
  Response Delay of [Query Response Interval].











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                                      --------------------------------
                              _______|________  gen. query timer      |
  ---------                  |                |        expired        |
 | Initial |---------------->|                | (send general query,  |
  ---------  (send gen. q.,  |                |  set gen. q. timer)   |
        set initial gen. q.  |                |<----------------------
              timer)         |    Querier     |
                             |                |
                        -----|                |<---
                       |     |                |    |
                       |     |________________|    |
 query received from a |                           | other querier
 router with a lower   |                           | present timer
 IP address            |                           | expired
 (set other querier    |      ________________     | (send gen. query,
  present timer)       |     |                |    | set gen. q. timer)
                       |     |                |    |
                       |     |                |    |
                        ---->|      Non       |----
                             |    Querier     |
                             |                |
                             |                |
                        ---->|                |----
                       |     |________________|    |
                       | query received from a     |
                       | router with a lower IP    |
                       | address                   |
                       | (set other querier        |
                       |  present timer)           |
                        ---------------------------


A router starts in the Initial state on all attached links, and
immediately transitions to Querier state.

In addition, to keep track of which multicast addresses have listeners,
a router may be in one of four possible states with respect to any
single IPv6 multicast address on any single attached link:

- "No Listeners Present" state, when there are no nodes on the link that
  have sent a Report for this multicast address.  This is the initial
  state for all multicast addresses on the router; it requires no
  storage in the router.

- "Listeners Present" state, when there is a node on the link that has
  sent a Report for this multicast address.




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- "Checking Listeners" state, when the router has received a Done
  message but has not yet heard a Report for the identified address.

There are five significant events that can cause router state
transitions:

- "report received" occurs when the router receives a Report for the
  address from the link.  To be valid, the Report message MUST come from
  a link-local IPv6 Source Address, be at least 24 octets long, and have
  a correct MLD checksum.

- "done received" occurs when the router receives a Done message for the
  address from the link.  To be valid, the Done message MUST come from a
  link-local IPv6 Source Address, be at least 24 octets long, and have a
  correct MLD checksum.

- "timer expired" occurs when the timer set for a multicast address
  expires.

- "retransmit timer expired" occurs when the timer set to retransmit a
  Multicast-Address-Specific Query expires.

There are six possible actions that may be taken in response to the
above events:

- "start timer" for the address on the link - also resets the timer to
  its initial value [Multicast Listener Interval] if the timer is
  currently running.

- "start timer*" for the address on the link - this alternate action
  sets the timer to [Last Listener Query Interval] * [Last Listener
  Query Count] if this router is a Querier, or the Maximum Response
  Delay in the Query message * [Last Listener Query Count] if this
  router is a non-Querier.

- "start retransmit timer" for the address on the link [Last Listener
  Query Interval].

- "send multicast-address-specific query" for the address on the link.
  The Multicast-Address-Specific Query is sent to the address being
  queried, and has a Maximum Response Delay of [Last Listener Query
  Interval].

- "notify routing +" internally notify the multicast routing protocol
  that there are listeners to this address on this link.

- "notify routing -" internally notify the multicast routing protocol
  that there are no longer any listeners to this address on this link.



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The state transition diagram for a router in Querier state follows:

                              ________________
                             |                |
                             |                |timer expired
                timer expired|                |(notify routing -,
           (notify routing -)|  No Listeners  |clear rxmt tmr)
                     ------->|    Present     |<---------
                    |        |                |          |
                    |        |                |          |
                    |        |________________|          |  ---------------
                    |                    |               | | rexmt timer   |
                    |     report received|               | |  expired      |
                    |  (notify routing +,|               | | (send m-a-s   |
                    |        start timer)|               | |  query,       |
          __________|______              |       ________|_|______ st rxmt |
         |                 |<------------       |                 | tmr)   |
         |                 |                    |                 |<-------
         |                 | report received    |                 |
         |                 | (start timer)      |                 |
         |    Listeners    |<-------------------|    Checking     |
         |     Present     | leave received     |    Listeners    |
         |                 | (start timer*,     |                 |
         |                 |  start rxmt timer, |                 |
         |                 |  send m-a-s query) |                 |
     --->|                 |------------------->|                 |
    |    |_________________|                    |_________________|
    | report received |
    | (start timer)   |
     -----------------





















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The state transition diagram for a router in Non-Querier state is
similar, but non-Queriers do not send any messages and are only driven
by message reception.

                              ________________
                             |                |
                             |                |
                timer expired|                |timer expired
           (notify routing -)|  No Listeners  |(notify routing -)
                   --------->|    Present     |<---------
                  |          |                |          |
                  |          |                |          |
                  |          |                |          |
                  |          |________________|          |
                  |                   |                  |
                  |                   |report received   |
                  |                   |(notify routing +,|
                  |                   | start timer)     |
          ________|________           |          ________|________
         |                 |<---------          |                 |
         |                 |  report received   |                 |
         |                 |  (start timer)     |                 |
         |    Listeners    |<-------------------|     Checking    |
         |     Present     | m-a-s query rec'd  |    Listeners    |
         |                 | (start timer*)     |                 |
    ---->|                 |------------------->|                 |
   |     |_________________|                    |_________________|
   | report received |
   | (start timer)   |
    -----------------





















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6.  List of timers and default values

Most of these timers are configurable.  If non-default settings are
used, they MUST be consistent among all routers on a single link.  Note
that parentheses are used to group expressions to make the algebra
clear.

6.1.  Robustness Variable

The Robustness Variable allows tuning for the expected packet loss on a
link.  If a link is expected to be lossy, the Robustness Variable may be
increased.  MLD is robust to (Robustness Variable - 1) packet losses.
The Robustness Variable MUST NOT be zero, and SHOULD NOT be one.
Default: 2

6.2.  Query Interval

The Query Interval is the interval between General Queries sent by the
Querier.  Default: 125 seconds.

By varying the [Query Interval], an administrator may tune the number of
MLD messages on the link; larger values cause MLD Queries to be sent
less often.

6.3.  Query Response Interval

The Maximum Response Delay inserted into the periodic General Queries.
Default: 10000 (10 seconds)

By varying the [Query Response Interval], an administrator may tune the
burstiness of MLD messages on the link; larger values make the traffic
less bursty, as node responses are spread out over a larger interval.
The number of seconds represented by the [Query Response Interval] must
be less than the [Query Interval].

6.4.  Multicast Listener Interval

The Multicast Listener Interval is the amount of time that must pass
before a router decides there are no more listeners for an address on a
link.  This value MUST be ((the Robustness Variable) times (the Query
Interval)) plus (one Query Response Interval).

6.5.  Other Querier Present Interval

The Other Querier Present Interval is the length of time that must pass
before a router decides that there is no longer another router which
should be the querier on a link.  This value MUST be ((the Robustness
Variable) times (the Query Interval)) plus (one half of one Query



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Response Interval).

6.6.  Startup Query Interval

The Startup Query Interval is the interval between General Queries sent
by a Querier on startup.  Default: 1/4 the Query Interval.

6.7.  Startup Query Count

The Startup Query Count is the number of Queries sent out on startup,
separated by the Startup Query Interval.  Default: the Robustness
Variable.

6.8.  Last Listener Query Interval

The Last Listener Query Interval is the Maximum Response Delay inserted
into Multicast-Address-Specific Queries sent in response to Done
messages, and is also the amount of time between Multicast-Address-
Specific Query messages.  Default: 1000 (1 second)

This value may be tuned to modify the "leave latency" of the link.  A
reduced value results in reduced time to detect the departure of the
last listener for an address.

6.9.  Last Listener Query Count

The Last Listener Query Count is the number of Multicast-Address-
Specific Queries sent before the router assumes there are no remaining
listeners for an address on a link.  Default: the Robustness Variable.

6.10.  Unsolicited Report Interval

The Unsolicited Report Interval is the time between repetitions of a
node's initial report of interest in a multicast address.  Default: 10
seconds.

7.  Message Destinations

This information is provided elsewhere in the document, but is
summarized here for convenience.

Message Type                       IPv6 Destination Address
------------                       ------------------------
General Query                      link-scope all-nodes (FF02::1)
Multicast-Address-Specific Query   the multicast address being queried
Report                             the multicast address being reported
Done                               link-scope all-routers (FF02::2)




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8.  Security Considerations

We consider the ramifications of a forged message of each type.  Note
that the requirement that nodes verify that the IPv6 Source Address of
all received MLD messages is a link-local address defends them from
acting on forged MSD messages originated off-link, so we discuss only
the effects of on-link forgery.

Query message:

     A forged Query message from a machine with a lower IP address than
     the current Querier will cause Querier duties to be assigned to the
     forger.  If the forger then sends no more Query messages, other
     routers' Other Querier Present timer will time out and one will
     resume the role of Querier.  During this time, if the forger
     ignores Done messages, traffic might flow to addresses with no
     listeners for up to [Multicast Listener Interval].

     A forged Query message sent to an address with listeners will cause
     one or more nodes that are listeners to that address to send a
     Report.  This causes a small amount of extra traffic on the link,
     but causes no protocol problems.

Report message:

     A forged Report message may cause routers to think there are
     listeners for an address present on a link when there are not.
     However, since listening to a multicast address is generally an
     unprivileged operation, a local user may trivially gain the same
     result without forging any messages.

Done message:

     A forged Done message will cause the Querier to send out
     Multicast-Address-Specific Queries for the address in question.
     This causes extra processing on each router and on each of the
     address's listeners, and extra packets on the link, but cannot
     cause loss of desired traffic.

9.  Acknowledgments

MLD was derived from IGMPv2, which was designed by Rosen Sharma and
Steve Deering and documented by Bill Fenner.








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10.  References

[KEYWORDS]     Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
               Requirement Levels", RFC 2119/BCP 14, March 1997.

[IGMPv2]       Fenner, W., "Internet Group Management Protocol, Version
               2", RFC 2236, November 1997.

[IPv6]         Deering, S. and Hinden, R., "Internet Protocol, Version 6
               (IPv6) Specification", RFC ????, ??? 1998.

[ICMPv6]       Conta, A. and Deering, S., "Internet Control Message
               Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol Version 6
               (IPv6) Specification", RFC ????, ??? 1998.

[RTR-ALERT]    Katz, D., Atkinson, R., Partridge, C. and Jackson, A.,
               "IPv6 Router Alert Option", RFC ????, ??? 1998.


11.  Authors' Addresses


   Stephen E. Deering
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   170 West Tasman Drive
   San Jose, CA 95134-1706
   USA
   Phone: +1 408 527 8213
   Email: deering@cisco.com

   William C. Fenner
   Xerox PARC
   3333 Coyote Hill Road
   Palo Alto, CA 94304
   USA
   Phone: +1 650 812 4816
   Email: fenner@parc.xerox.com

   Brian Haberman
   IBM Corporation
   800 Park Office Drive
   Research Triangle Park, NC  27709
   USA
   Phone: +1 919 254 2673
   EMail: haberman@raleigh.ibm.com






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