Monitoring Multicast at the Network Layer Using Router State

Development of new multicast monitoring techniques and tools has not met demand. Most of the existing tools have only marginal utility in today's multicast infrastructure. This is the case because these tools lack the ability to handle the latest routing protocols or 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. To this end, we have developed Mantra, a tool for collecting monitoring data from multicast routers, analyzing the collected data, and presenting realtime results. Using collected data, Mantra creates interactive graphs of multicast state from the target router's point of view. These results are being used to monitor: multicast usage and deployment, as well as routing protocol deployment and performance.