[Xorp-users] How to send the PIM-SM control message?

Pavlin Radoslavov pavlin@icir.org
Mon, 24 Oct 2005 22:28:24 -0700


> I'm using XORP 1.1 releases on the Redhat linux
> Now, I am trying to test PIM-SM operation
> But I can not send PIM-SM contro messages (Join/Prune, Register, Register-stop, etc)
> 
> In XORP PIM-SM Test Suite, it tells that 
> "The test software used in this test suite is the XORP PIM-SM implementation itself. More specifically,
> the XORP PIM-SM implementation has extensions that can be used to generate various PIM-SM
> protocol control packets for testing purpose"
> 
> But it doesn't tell how to generate various PIM-SM control packets.

You can use the send_test_* XRL interface (see
xrl/interfaces/pim.xif).

The model for sending the Join/Prune messages is that you call a
number of add_test_jp_entry{4,6} to add each entry, and then you
send the composed message by send_test_jp_entry{4,6}.

The model for sending the Bootstrap and Cand-RP-Adv messages is
similar: you use add_test_bsr_zone{4,6},
add_test_bsr_group_prefix{4,6}, add_test_bsr_rp{4,6} to compose the
message, and then it is transmitted by one of the
send_test_bootstrap* or send_test_cand_rp_adv XRLs.

The Assert messages don't need to be composed in advance and are
transmitted directly by send_test_assert{4,6}.

Unfortunately, there is no XRL to explicitly trigger sending of a
Hello message. In my tests I found it more useful to use XORP as-is
to transmit periodically the PIM Hello messages. I think this is an
omission and for completeness there should be an XRL to transmit a
Hello message with various options enabled/disabled.
If having the Hello message support is important for you, please add
a bugzilla entry about it.

Pavlin