Cisco IOS Cookbook, 2nd Edition

Converting Broadcasts to Multicasts

Problem

You have a broadcast-based application that you want to treat as multicast so that it can cross the network.

Solution

Cisco has a special feature called an IP Multicast Helper, which you can use to convert broadcast packets to multicast packets. Then you can use PIM to send these packets throughout the network. At the last-hop routers you can then convert the multicast packets back to broadcast. This is useful for older broadcast-based applications that do not support multicast transmission.

Router1 is the first-hop router, or the one closest to the broadcast source, which is on the interface FastEthernet0/0. It converts broadcast packets with UDP port 3535 received on this interface into multicast packets in group 239.3.5.35:

Router1#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
Router1(config)#ip multicast-routing
Router1(config)#access-list 115 permit any any udp 3535
Router1(config)#access-list 115 deny any any udp
Router1(config)#interface FastEthernet0/0
Router1(config-if)#ip directed broadcast
Router1(config-if)#ip multicast helper-map broadcast 239.3.5.35 115
Router1(config-if)#exit
Router1(config)#ip pim sparse-dense-mode
Router1(config)#ip forward-protocol udp 3535
Router1(config)#end
Router1#

The last-hop router’s configuration is similar, except that it must be configured to turn multicast packets for this group back into broadcasts:

Router2#configure terminal Enter configuration commands, one per ...