Multicast IP Address to MAC address mapping

Hello Ashish

Although it is theoretically possible to do this, so that you will indeed have a 1:1 correspondence between the multicast MAC and IP ranges, this is not a viable solution. This is because MAC addresses have been designed to have two distinct sections, the OUI which defines the vendor, which is 24 bits, and the second section which defines the unique device identifier. This arrangement cannot be adjusted, so only 24 bits are made available to the multicast MAC address range.

Now having said that, the mechanism of mapping multicast MACs to IPs is such that the possibility of duplication is very small. Even if it happens, the switch will simply drop any incorrect matches that take place without any substantial bandwidth or resource usage. The arrangement works very well and does not really affect performance in any way.

I hope this has been helpful!

Laz