Sparse Versus Dense Topologies

Fri, 12 Jan 2018 | Routing TCP IP

A dense topology is one in which there are many multicast group members relative to the total number of hosts in an internetwork Sparse topologies have few group members relative to the total number of hosts Sparse does not mean that there are few hosts A sparse topology might mean there are 2,000 members of a group, for example, spread among 100,000 total hosts

No specific numeric ratios delineate sparse and dense topologies It is safe to say, however, that dense topologies are usually found in switched LAN and campus environments, and sparse topologies usually involve WANs What is important is that multicast routing protocols are designed to work best in one or the other topology and are designated as either dense mode protocols or sparse mode protocols Table 5-3 shows the class to which each of the five multicast routing protocols belongs