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RTP monitoring tools

This class of tools provides information required to monitor the performance of RTP-based applications.

1. RTPmon
Authors

David Bacher, Andrew Swan, and Lawrence A. Rowe
{drbacher,aswan,rowe}@cs.berkeley.edu
Computer Science Division - EECS
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1776

Description

RTPmon allows network administrators or support personnel to monitor listenership as well as session quality experienced by subscribers. The tool also facilitates tracing the cause of problems resulting in quality degradation. To accomplish this task, RTPmon summarizes and analyzes information provided by RTCP source and receiver reports.

Receivers are displayed for a given sender in the form of a spreadsheet, with cells being filled in with metrics such as packet loss rate or jitter. Clicking on a cell displays a stripchart of statistics on packet loss rate, smoothed packet loss rate and jitter. From the stripchart it is possible to launch an mtrace between the sender and the receiver, a convenient way of diagnosing network problems along the multicast distribution path. Clicking on a receiver or sender displays summary information.

For groups with large memberships, the display may be limited to members surpassing a given threshold in packet loss rate or jitter. Using RTPmon it is possible to sort receivers for a given sender according to maximum or average loss.

Further information is available in the RTPmon man page.

Example

For examples and further information, see the rtpmon man page, or: http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~drbacher/projects/mm96-demo/

Facilities used

RTCP source and receiver reports
IGMP multicast trace (if installed)

Availability

RTPmon is available for UNIX and may be obtained from:
ftp://mm-ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/rtpmon/

Bug reports and suggestions should be sent to:
rtpmon@bmrc.berkeley.edu.

2. RTPcast/RTPlisten, RTPquality, Duppkts, RTPdump, RTPtools, Msessmon, Mpoll
Author

Mpoll: Andrew Patrick andrew@calvin.dgbt.doc.ca

Description

RTPcast listens to RTCP receiver reports and forwards data to another multicast group; RTPlisten then listens to that group. RTPdump listens for, and dumps RTP and RTCP packets. Duppkts listens on a multicast group and port, and reports the number of packets received and lost, as well as the number of duplicates. RTPquality listens to RTCP receiver reports and writes data on packet loss, as well as late and non-sequenced packets. RTPtools allows recording and playback of RTP sessions. Msessmon provides a routemap of participants in RTP conferences as well as stripcharts of statistics on RTP packet loss and jitter. Mpoll is a survey collection tool that can be used to collect quality ratings during multicast sessions.

Example

Information on these tools is available from:
http://sauce.mmlab.uninett.no/mice-nsc/tools.html

Facilities used

RTCP source and receiver reports

Availability

Binaries for RTPcast/RTPlisten are available from:
ftp://sauce.uio.no/mice-nsc/util/rtp

Source code for RTPquality is available from:
ftp://sauce.uio.no/mice-nsc/util/rtp/rtpqual.c

Source code for RTPdump is available at:
ftp://sauce.uio.no/mice-nsc/util/rtpdump-1.0.tar.gz

Source code for RTPtools is available at:
ftp://sauce.uio.no/mice-nsc/util/rtptools/rtptools-1.9.tar.gz

Source and binaries for Msessmon is available at:
ftp://sauce.uio.no/mice-nsc/util/msessmon/

Source and binaries for Mpoll is available at:
ftp://sauce.uio.no/mice-nsc/util/mpoll/

Multicast router diagnostics

This class of tools facilitates monitoring and management of multicast routers.

3. mrouted.dump, mrouted.cache
Author

Bill Fenner, fenner@research.att.com

Description

Sending the USR1 signal to mrouted dumps the internal routing table to /var/tmp/mrouted.dump; sending the USR2 signal dumps the forwarding cache to /var/tmp/mrouted.cache.

Further information on mrouted and the mrouted.dump and mrouted.cache file formats is available in the mrouted man page.

Example 
   % cat mrouted.dump
   vifs_with_neighbors = 2

   Virtual Interface Table
   Vif  Name  Local-Address                               M  Thr  Rate   Flags
    0    ed0  128.31.107.1    subnet: 128.31.107/24       1   1      0   querier
                               peers: 128.31.107.249 (3.8) (0xe)
                              groups: 239.109.100.200
                                      224.0.0.2
                                      224.0.0.4
                            pkts in : 4075
                            pkts out: 0

    1    ed0  128.31.107.1    tunnel: 204.67.107.11        1  32    500
                               peers: 204.67.107.11 (11.2) (0x1a)
                            pkts in : 0
                            pkts out: 2359


   Multicast Routing Table (3801 entries)
    Origin-Subnet      From-Gateway    Metric Tmr In-Vif  Out-Vifs
    207.10.165.51/32   128.31.107.249   10    20   0        1
    207.10.165.50/32   128.31.107.249   10    20   0        1
    206.172.195.32/32  128.31.107.249    9    20   0        1
    172/8              128.31.107.249   10    20   0        1
    ...

   % cat mrouted.cache
   Multicast Routing Cache Table (198 entries)
    Origin             Mcast-group     CTmr  Age Ptmr IVif Forwvifs
    131.107.2.139/32   224.0.12.0       58s   7m    - -1
   >131.107.2.139
    143.107.103.0/27   224.0.1.1         3m   2m   3m  0P
   >143.107.103.5
    128.232/16         224.0.1.1         4m   7m   4m  0P
   >128.232.2.209
    157.161/16         224.0.1.1        67s   6m    -  0    1
   >157.161.114.2
    206.152.163/24     224.0.1.15       74s   7m    -  0    1
   >206.152.163.21
    4.0.0.34/32        224.0.1.32       56s   4m  25s  0P   1p
   >4.0.0.34
    137.39.2.254/32    224.0.1.32        3m   5m    -  0    1
   >137.39.2.254
    137.39.43.32/30    224.0.1.32       38s   5m    -  0    1
   >137.39.43.34
    ...

   Internal facilities (forwarding cache and routing table)
Availability

The SNMP-capable mrouted distribution is available at: ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mirrors/mrouted/

4. mrinfo
Author

Van Jacobson, van@ee.lbl.gov

Description

mrinfo displays information about a multicast router; to do this, it uses the IGMP ASK_NEIGHBORS message to discover the router's physical and virtual interfaces. Routers are also queried for their version number, and if this query is successful, for their metrics, thresholds, and flags. Results are printed in an indented list format similar to that for map-mbone.

Example 

   % mrinfo 192.80.214.199
   192.80.214.199 (collegepk-mbone1.bbnplanet.net) [version 11.2,prune,mtrace,snmp]:
     128.167.252.196 -> 0.0.0.0 (local) [1/0/pim/querier/leaf]
     192.80.214.199 -> 0.0.0.0 (local) [1/0/pim/querier/leaf]
     192.41.177.196 -> 0.0.0.0 (local) [1/0/pim/querier/down/leaf]
     128.167.252.196 -> 128.167.254.165 (devo.sura.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier/down/leaf]
     128.167.252.196 -> 131.119.0.197 (paloalto-mbone1.bbnplanet.net)
          [1/64/tunnel/pim/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 199.94.207.2 (cambridge1-mbone1.bbnplanet.net)
          [1/32/tunnel/pim/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 137.39.43.34 (MBONE1.UU.NET) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 192.41.177.199 (wtn-ms2.bbnplanet.net) [1/16/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 128.244.93.3 (sage.jhuapl.edu) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 192.221.34.22 (cdrn.bbnplanet.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 128.167.1.197 (cpk-ms1.ser.bbnplanet.com) [1/16/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 134.205.93.150 (dilbert.sam.pentagon.mil) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 192.221.48.234 (atlanta3-mbone1.bbnplanet.net)
          [1/64/tunnel/pim/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 204.167.201.38 (dallas2-mbone1.bbnplanet.net)
          [1/64/tunnel/pim/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 205.130.85.3 (philipii.nap.edu) [1/32/tunnel/querier/down/leaf]
     128.167.252.196 -> 128.175.13.36 (pfet.nss.udel.edu) [1/32/tunnel/querier/down/leaf]
     128.167.252.196 -> 192.41.177.197 (wtn-ms1.bbnplanet.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 204.148.62.28 (mbone-e.ans.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
     128.167.252.196 -> 205.128.246.2 (usnrctc.bbnplanet.net) [1/32/tunnel/pim/querier]
Facilities used

IGMP ASK_NEIGHBORS message (DVMRP)

Availability

mrinfo is available for UNIX and is included in the SNMP-capable mrouted distribution, available at: ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mirrors/mrouted/

5. netstat

Author

Unknown

Description

On multicast-enabled systems, netstat is typically extended so as to provide information on virtual interfaces and the multicast forwarding cache (-g option), as well as multicast routing statistics (-gs option), and igmp behavior (-s option).

Example 

   %netstat -g

   Virtual Interface Table
    Vif   Thresh   Rate   Local-Address   Remote-Address    Pkts-In   Pkts-Out
     0         1      0   128.15.2.120                       16323        385
     1        32    512   128.15.2.120   202.34.126.2            2          0

   Multicast Forwarding Cache
    Origin          Group             Packets In-Vif  Out-Vifs:Ttls
    128.15.2.120   224.2.195.166         281    0
    128.15.1.110   239.100.101.223      1660    0
    128.15.1.135   238.27.27.1          1660    0
    128.15.1.110   239.111.111.235      1660    0
    ...

   %netstat -gs
   multicast forwarding:
        182880 multicast forwarding cache lookups
          8237 multicast forwarding cache misses
          6736 upcalls to mrouted
           193 upcall queue overflows
          5567 upcalls dropped due to full socket buffer
           177 cache cleanups
          7234 datagrams with no route for origin
             0 datagrams arrived with bad tunneling
             0 datagrams could not be tunneled
           954 datagrams arrived on wrong interface
             0 datagrams selectively dropped
             0 datagrams dropped due to queue overflow
             0 datagrams dropped for being too large

   %netstat -s
   ip:
           3807182 total packets received
           0 bad header checksums
           ...
   icmp:
           40 calls to icmp_error
           0 errors not generated 'cuz old message was icmp
           ...
   igmp:
           18504 messages received
           0 messages received with too few bytes
           48 messages received with bad checksum
           2478 membership queries received
           0 membership queries received with invalid field(s)
           194 membership reports received
           0 membership reports received with invalid field(s)
           0 membership reports received for groups to which we belong
           8510 membership reports sent
   tcp:
           10705 packets sent
                   5536 data packets (1532081 bytes)
                   ...
   udp:
           3104045 datagrams received
           0 with incomplete header
           ...
Facilities used

Netstat accesses system internal data structures in order to carry out its function.

Availability

netstat is included with a variety of operating systems, including UNIX, OS/2, and Windows. For further information, please consult the netstat man page or documentation.

6. mstat

Author

Dave Thaler, dthaler@microsoft.com

Description

mstat is a general purpose tool for obtaining router configuration and status information. In order to perform its task, mstat utilizes SNMP MIBs (such as the IGMP, multicast routing, PIM, and DVMRP MIBs), as well as ASK_NEIGHBORS IGMP messages. mstat displays the contents of various MBONE-related data structures in various formats, depending on the options selected. Options include: 

   -G      Show the PIM group table
   -I      Show the PIM interface table.
   -K      Show  the cached IP multicast route table; works for
            all SNMP-capable routers.
   -N      Show  the IP Multicast Next Hop Table.
   -P      Show the PIM neighbor table.
   -a      Show the alternate subnet table.
   -b      Show the scoped  boundary  table.
   -d      Show the DVMRP neighbor  table.
   -g      Show the Group Summary table.
   -i      Show the DVMRP interface table; similar to an
            mrinfo report.
   -l      Show the IGMP local group table.
   -r      Show the DVMRP routing table; similar to a portion of
            the mrouted.dump file.
   -t      Show  the  DVMRP routing next hop table; similar to
            another portion of the mrouted.dump file.
   -v      Show  statistics corresponding to the DVMRP interface table.

Examples 

   % mstat
   IP Multicast Route Table for bigco.com
   Mcast-group     Origin-Subnet     InIf  UpTime Tmr   Pkts     Bytes RpF Proto
   NTP.MCAST.NET   0.0.0.0/32          0   245341 179      0         0   0 pim
   NTP.MCAST.NET   128.232.0.49/32     7   206403 418   3056    293376  17 dvmrp
   NTP.MCAST.NET   128.232.2.209/32    7   206403 417   3027    290592  19 dvmrp
   NTP.MCAST.NET   143.107.103.5/32    7      592 218      3       228   3 dvmrp
   NTP.MCAST.NET   157.161.114.2/32    7    27703 517    411     31236  11 dvmrp
   IETF-2-VIDEO.MC 0.0.0.0/32          0   245349 175      0         0   0 pim
   IETF-2-VIDEO.MC 206.152.163.21/32   7   242567 244  46887   4149336 3388 dvmrp
   MTRACE.MCAST.NE 0.0.0.0/32          0     1690 177      0         0   0 pim
   MTRACE.MCAST.NE 194.104.0.25/32     7      405 483      2       792   0 dvmrp
   MTRACE.MCAST.NE 206.54.224.150/32   7      456 569      4      1072   4 dvmrp
   CISCO-RP-DISCOV 0.0.0.0/32          0   245534   0      0         0   0 pim
   224.0.14.1      203.15.123.99/32    4       17 161      0         0   0 dvmrp
   224.0.92.3      171.68.201.39/32    4      174   4      0         0   0 dvmrp
   224.2.0.1       13.2.116.11/32      4      150  26      0         0   0 dvmrp
   224.2.0.1       128.32.38.218/32    4      147  30      0         0   0 dvmrp
   224.2.2.1       205.226.8.183/32    4      146  30      0         0   0 dvmrp
   224.2.20.165    13.2.116.11/32      4       55 119      0         0   0 dvmrp
   224.2.100.100   13.2.116.11/32      4       87  91      0         0   0 dvmrp
   SAP.MCAST.NET   164.67.63.7/32      4      114  64      1       855   0 dvmrp
   SAP.MCAST.NET   193.61.212.130/32   4      153  23      1       868   0 dvmrp
   SAP.MCAST.NET   199.94.220.184/32   4       26 152      1       416   0 dvmrp
   SAP.MCAST.NET   206.154.213.242/32  4      156  19      1       360   0 dvmrp
    ...
Examples of the many other options are provided in the mstat man pages.

Facilities used

PIM, DVMRP, IGMP, and multicast routing MIBs IGMP ASK_NEIGHBORS message (DVMRP)

Availability
mstat is included in the SNMP-capable mrouted distribution, available at:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mirrors/mrouted/
mstat is also available in the MVIEW distribution, available at:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mview/

7. mconfig

Author
Dave Thaler, dthaler@microsoft.com
Description

mconfig allows the user to display and (if the community string is known) to modify the configuration of a multicast router implementing the DVMRP MIB.

Example

For more information on mconfig, please see the man page.

Facilities used

DVMRP MIB

Availability

mconfig is available for UNIX and is included in the SNMP-capable mrouted distribution, available at:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mirrors/mrouted/



Multicast traceroute

8. mtrace

Author

Bill Fenner, fenner@research.att.com

Description

mtrace provides a facility by which to trace the path between a sender and a receiver of a particular group. This is particularly useful when used alongside a facility such as RTPmon, which allows you to identify problem source-receiver pairs.

Note that the utility of mtrace is often limited by the multicast topology. Where multicast and unicast topologies are not aligned (as is the case in many multicast-enabled networks) mtrace may not function.

For information on the details of the protocol, see reference ___[8]____.

Example 

   % mtrace 131.243.73.36 128.15.1.250 224.2.195.166
   Mtrace from 131.243.73.36 to 128.15.1.250 via group 224.2.195.166
   Querying full reverse path... * switching to hop-by-hop:
     0  bigman.bigco.com (128.15.1.250)
    -1  * * littleman.bigco.com (128.15.1.249)  DVMRP  thresh^ 1
    -2  * * * seamr1-gw.nwnet.net (192.35.180.201)  DVMRP  thresh^ 32
    -3  * * seamr2-gw.nwnet.net (192.220.238.130)  DVMRP  thresh^ 0
    -4  * * mcast.cac.washington.edu (140.142.116.1)  DVMRP  thresh^ 32
    -5  * * * * dec3800-1-fddi-0.Sacramento.mci.net (204.70.164.29) didn't respond
    -6  * * *
    -7  * *
   Resuming...
    -5  dec3800-1-fddi-0.Sacramento.mci.net (204.70.164.29)  DVMRP  thresh^ 64
    -6  dec3800-2-fddi-0.SanFrancisco.mci.net (204.70.158.61)  DVMRP  thresh^ 1
    -7  mbone.nsi.nasa.gov (192.203.230.241)  DVMRP  thresh^ 64
    -8  * * llnl-mr2.es.net (134.55.12.229)  DVMRP  thresh^ 64
    -9  * * lbl-mr1.es.net (134.55.12.101)  DVMRP  thresh^ 8
   -10  * * mr1.lbl.gov (131.243.64.184)  DVMRP  thresh^ 32
   -11  * * ir40gw.lbl.gov (131.243.64.1)  DVMRP  thresh^ 0
   -12  * * irals.lbl.gov (131.243.128.6)  PIM  thresh^ 0
   -13  bl7-36.als.lbl.gov (131.243.73.36)
   Round trip time 74 ms; total ttl of 72 required.

   Waiting to accumulate statistics... Results after 10 seconds:

     Source        Response Dest    Overall     Packet Statistics For Traffic From
   131.243.73.36   128.15.1.250    Packet      131.243.73.36 To 224.2.195.166
        v       __/  rtt   77 ms     Rate       Lost/Sent = Pct  Rate
   131.243.73.1
   131.243.128.6   irals.lbl.gov
        v     ^      ttl    1         6 pps        0/60   =  0%   6 pps
   131.243.128.40
   131.243.64.1    ir40gw.lbl.gov
        v     ^      ttl    2        13 pps        0/60   =  0%   6 pps
   131.243.64.184  mr1.lbl.gov
        v     ^      ttl   35         9 pps        0/60   =  0%   6 pps
   198.128.16.13
   134.55.12.101   lbl-mr1.es.net
        v     ^      ttl   35         0 pps        0/60   =  0%   0 pps
   134.55.12.229   llnl-mr2.es.net
        v     ^      ttl   69         0 pps        1/60   =  2%   0 pps
   192.203.230.241 mbone.nsi.nasa.gov
        v     ^      ttl   70         0 pps        0/59   =  0%   0 pps
   204.70.158.61   dec3800-2-fddi-0.SanFrancisco.mci.net
        v     ^      ttl   70         0 pps        0/59   =  0%   0 pps
   204.70.164.29   dec3800-1-fddi-0.Sacramento.mci.net
        v     ^      ttl   72         0 pps        0/59   =  0%   0 pps
   140.142.116.1   mcast.cac.washington.edu
        v     ^      ttl   72         0 pps        0/59   =  0%   0 pps
   192.220.249.66
   192.220.238.130 seamr2-gw.nwnet.net
        v     ^      ttl   72         0 pps        0/59   =  0%   0 pps
   192.220.238.129
   192.35.180.201  seamr1-gw.nwnet.net
        v     ^      ttl   72         0 pps        0/59   =  0%   0 pps
   128.15.1.249    littleman.bigco.com
        v      __   ttl   72         0 pps        ?/59           0 pps
   128.15.1.250   128.15.1.250
     Receiver      Query Source
Facilities used

IGMP multicast trace facility

Availability
mtrace is now distributed independently of mrouted.

Source code is available from:
ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/net-research/ipmulti/mtrace5.1.tar.Z

Binaries: ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/net-research/ipmulti/mtrace5.1-sparc-sunos41x.tar.Z
ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/net-research/ipmulti/mtrace5.1-sparc-solaris2.tar.Z
ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/net-research/ipmulti/mtrace5.1-alpha-osf1.tar.Z
ftp://ftp.parc.xerox.com/pub/net-research/ipmulti/mtrace5.1-sgi-irix.tar.Z


MBONE mapping tools

9. mrtree
Author

Dave Thaler, dthaler@microsoft.com
Andy Adams, ala@merit.edu

Description

mrtree uses a combination of IGMP and SNMP queries to discover the actual and potential multicast (sub)trees for a given source and group, rooted at a given router. An actual tree, discovered using the multicast routing MIB, consists of routers which are currently forwarding multicast traffic to a group from a given source. A potential tree, discovered using the DVMRP MIB, is one which would exist if every host were a member of the group.

Example 

   % mrtree mbone.merit.edu 224.2.143.24 204.62.246.73
   Actual distribution tree rooted at mbone.merit.edu for group 224.2.143.24
   and source 204.62.246.73...
   0 mbone.merit.edu (198.108.2.20) [ver 3.8,prune,genid,mtrace],
     247390 pkts
     1 cujo.merit.edu (198.108.60.97) [ver 3.6,prune,genid,mtrace], 333448
       6 pkts (1347%)
         2 subnet: 198.108.60/24
         2 shockwave.merit.edu (198.108.60.69) [ver 3.8,prune,genid,mtrace,snmp],
           1239130 pkts (500%)
     1 tibia.cic.net (192.217.65.100) [ver 3.8,prune,genid,mtrace]
         ... (No response from tibia.cic.net)
         2 fibula.cic.net (192.217.65.101) [ver 3.8,prune,genid,mtrace] ?
         2 dcl2.gw.uiuc.edu (192.17.2.8) [ver 1.0] ?
         2 goober.mci.net (204.70.104.45) [ver 3.6,prune,genid,mtrace] ?
           ... (goober.mci.net did not respond to DVMRP 'NEIGHBORS' msg)
      1 a-wing.jvnc.net (130.94.40.6) [ver 3.3]
           ... (a-wing.jvnc.net does not support SNMP)
         2 liberty-eth0/0.jvnc.net (130.94.40.1) [ver 10.2] ?
         2 noc.hpc.org (192.187.8.2) [ver 3.8,prune,genid,mtrace] ?
         2 liberty.jvnc.net (130.94.40.201) [ver 10.2] ?
         2 dstest.ds.internic.net (198.49.45.4) [ver 3.8,prune,genid,mtrace] ?
         2 cybercast.cc.nus.sg (137.132.9.70) [ver 3.6,prune,genid,mtrace] ?
           ... (cybercast.cc.nus.sg did not respond to DVMRP 'NEIGHBORS' msg)
Facilities used

DVMRP and multicast routing MIBs
IGMP ASK_NEIGHBORS message (DVMRP)

Availability

mrtree is available for UNIX and is included in the SNMP-capable mrouted distribution, available at:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mirrors/mrouted/

mrtree is also available in the MVIEW distribution, available at: ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mview/

10. map-mbone
Author

Pavel Curtis, pavel@parc.xerox.com

Description

map-mbone is useful for discovering the topology within a DVMRP routing domain; to do this, it uses the IGMP ASK_NEIGHBORS message to discover the neighbors of the starting router. If the -f (flooding) option is enabled (this is the default if no starting router is specified), then once these neighbors are discovered, they too are queried. This continues until the leaf routers are reached. This option should be used with care since it can result in excessive load on multicast routers.

If a starting router is specified but the -f option is not used, then the search terminates after the first hop routers are discovered, the output of map-mbone is very similar to that for mrinfo. Routers discovered by map-mbone are queried for their version numbers, and if this query is successful, for their metrics, thresholds, and flags, and the results are presented in an indented list format.

Example 

   % map-mbone 192.80.214.199
   192.41.177.196: alias for 128.167.252.196

   128.167.252.196 (collegepk-mbone1.bbnplanet.net): 
       192.41.177.196:  192.41.177.196 [1/0/querier/down]
       192.80.214.199:  192.80.214.199 (collegepk-mbone1.bbnplanet.net) [1/0/querier]
       128.167.252.196:  205.128.246.2 (usnrctc.bbnplanet.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         204.148.62.28 (mbone-e.ans.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         192.41.177.197 (wtn-ms1.bbnplanet.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         128.175.13.36 (pfet.nss.udel.edu) [1/32/tunnel/querier/down]
                         205.130.85.3 (philipii.nap.edu) [1/32/tunnel/querier/down]
                         204.167.201.38 (dallas2-mbone1.bbnplanet.net) [1/64/tunnel/querier]
                         192.221.48.234 (atlanta3-mbone1.bbnplanet.net) [1/64/tunnel/querier]
                         134.205.93.150 (dilbert.sam.pentagon.mil) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         128.167.1.197 (cpk-ms1.ser.bbnplanet.com) [1/16/tunnel/querier]
                         192.221.34.22 (cdrn.bbnplanet.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         128.244.93.3 (sage.jhuapl.edu) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         192.41.177.199 (wtn-ms2.bbnplanet.net) [1/16/tunnel/querier]
                         137.39.43.34 (MBONE1.UU.NET) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         199.94.207.2 (cambridge1-mbone1.bbnplanet.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier]
                         131.119.0.197 (paloalto-mbone1.bbnplanet.net) [1/64/tunnel/querier]
                         128.167.254.165 (devo.sura.net) [1/32/tunnel/querier/down]
                         128.167.252.196 (collegepk-mbone1.bbnplanet.net) [1/0/querier]

   192.80.214.199 (collegepk-mbone1.bbnplanet.net): alias for 128.167.252.196
Facilities used

IGMP ASK_NEIGHBORS message (DVMRP)

Availability

map-mbone is available for UNIX, and the software and manual pages are included in the SNMP-capable mrouted distribution, available at:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mirrors/mrouted/

11. asn
Author
Dave Thaler, dthaler@microsoft.com
Description

asn gives the AS number of a given IP address by querying the routing arbiter database.

Example 

   % asn 141.213.10.41
   AS237
Facilities used

Routing arbiter database

Availability
asn is included in the MVIEW distribution, available at:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mview/

12. asname
Author

Dave Thaler, dthaler@microsoft.com

Description

asname gets the name of an AS, given the AS number by querying the WHOIS database.

Example 

   % asname 237
   NSFNETTEST14-AS
Facilities used

WHOIS database

Availability

asname is included in the MVIEW distribution, available at:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mview/



Network Operations Center tools

These tools are suitable for use in a Network Operations Center.

13. MVIEW
Authors

Dave Thaler, dthaler@microsoft.com
Andy Adams, ala@merit.edu

Description

MVIEW uses utilities such as mstat, mtrace, mrtree, asn and asname in order to produce a graphical depiction of the multicast network topology and the actual and potential multicast trees for a given group and source.

Example

Further information on MVIEW as well as examples are available from:
http://www.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mviewdoc/Welcome.html

Facilities used

PIM, DVMRP, IGMP, and multicast routing MIBs (mstat)
IGMP ASK_NEIGHBORS message (mrinfo)
Routing arbiter database (asn)
WHOIS database (asname)

Availability

MVIEW is available for UNIX, and can be obtained from:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mview/

Documentation is available as:
ftp://ftp.merit.edu/net-research/mbone/mviewdoc/

14. Multicast heartbeat
Author

Many and various

Description

Devices implementing the multicast heartbeat listen on a designated group. If traffic is not observed on the group for a specified amount of time, an SNMP trap is generated. This allows multicast monitoring to be easily integrated into existing SNMP consoles. In situations where a shared-tree multicast routing protocol is used (such as sparse-mode PIM or CBT), it is recommended that the heartbeat generator be located close to the RP or core nodes, so as that loss of the heartbeat will correlate closely with loss of connectivity to the RP or core. Suitable heartbeat mechanisms include SNTP, which uses the group 224.0.1.1 (ntp.mcast.net) and UDP port 123; and SAP, which uses the group 224.2.127.254 (sap.mcast.net) and UDP port 9875.

Example

For further information on SNTP, consult ___[1]__.

Facilities used

SNTP (for time-based heartbeats)
SAP (for session announcement heartbeats)
SNMP traps (for alerts)

Network analysis tools

15. Dr. Watson, the Network Detective's Assistant (DWTNDA)
Author

Karl Auerbach, karl@cavebear.com

Description

DWTNDA is a general purpose troubleshooting tool with some IP multicast tools (in addition to a fair number of non-multicast tools). For example it can watch IGMP "join" activity on a LAN and put up a real-time display in tabular format. It can generate some test packets, like IGMPv2 Leaves or Group Membership Requests. It can generate and respond to multicast pings (icmp, udp, or snmp based.) It will eventually acquire more sophisticated multicast facilities.

Example

See http://www.cavebear.com/dwtnda/ for examples.

Facilities used

This is a troubleshooting tool, so it will typically respond to packets that, strictly speaking, ought to go unanswered.

Availability

DWTNDA runs on MS-DOS and Windows 95/98 and is free. Source is not provided. See http://www.cavebear.com/dwtnda/ for various documents and download information.

16. Mtap
Author

Luis Fernando da Silva Barra, barra@ax.apc.org
Michael Stanton, michael@omega.lncc.br

Description

MTap is a tool for observing IP multicast packet traffic crossing a subnet, normally an Ethernet.

Each packet sent to an IP multicast group address (class D) is captured, and information is extracted concerning its origin, its size, and so forth. This information is summarized, permitting the determination of the current network load resulting from multicast traffic. Apart from global summaries, traffic information is summarized by group and by source, permitting the determination of the contribution of each group and each individual sender to global traffic. The data recorded are as follows: number of multicast packets and total multicast bytes passing through the network, load level, and date and time of the last packet received.

As well as processing packets sent to a multicast address, MTap also records separately multicast packets encapsulated in point-to-point packets. Thus we can also deal with traffic in DVMRP tunnels between multicast routers, and tunnel traffic data are recorded in the same way as for a group.

As well as recording the data. MTap also permits that individual packet data be exhibited in dump format at capture time, both for multicast packets and for tunneled packets.

In order to evaluate the impact which a group imposes on a subnetwork, MTap can enter or leave a multicast group, using the IGMP protocol. Thus traffic can be observed for a group which has no other members on the subnetwork.

In addition to passively observing and recording multicast traffic, MTap has a notification mechanism, which sets off an alarm whenever user-specified load levels are exceeded, either globally, by group or by tunnel. Notifications are also logged in a dedicated window.

Example

Further information on Mtap will be available from:
http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~michael/GERENTE/tools

Facilities used

Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF)

Availability

MTap uses a window-based user interface, developed using Tcl/Tk, and captures packets through the Berkeley Packet Filter (BPF). It can thus be ported to different platforms.

Mtap, which is still under development, has been ported to Linux and Solaris; minor problems related to packet capture have still to be resolved for the Solaris version. When it is released, it will be available from:
http://www.inf.puc-rio.br/~michael/GERENTE/tools



Kevin Almeroth {almeroth@cs.ucsb.edu}
Anshuman Kanwar {akanwar@cs.ucsb.edu}
The starting point of this exercise is the May 2000 IETF draft by Dave Thaler and Bernard Aboba.