The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is a communications protocol used by hosts and adjacent routers on IP networks to establish multicast group memberships.
IGMP is an integral part of the IP multicast specification. IGMP can be used for online streaming video and gaming, and allows more efficient use of resources when supporting these types of applications.
IGMP is used on IPv4 networks. Multicast management on IPv6 networks is handled by Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) which uses ICMPv6 messaging in contrast to IGMP's bare IP encapsulation.
| Internet protocols |
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| Application layer |
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| Transport layer |
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| Routing protocols * |
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| Internet layer |
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| Link layer |
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| * Not a layer. A routing protocol belongs either to application or network layer. |
Read more about Internet Group Management Protocol: Architecture, Standards, Host and Router Implementations, Security, IGMPv3 Packet Structure, IGMPv2 Packet Structure
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