What is Internet Group Management Protocol IGMP?

Understanding Internet Group Management Protocol IGMP

Used to manage multicasting groups that are a set of hosts anywhere on a network that are listening for a transmission. IGMP is a communications protocol used by hosts and adjacent routers on IP networks to establish multicast group memberships. It enables efficient delivery of one-to-many communications for applications like video streaming and virtual meetings. IGMP can be vulnerable to various attacks including snooping and spoofing if not properly secured. IGMP security is addressed in standards like RFC 5519 for IGMP authentication and network security frameworks. Organizations secure IGMP through IGMP snooping, authentication, filtering at network boundaries, and monitoring for suspicious multicast traffic. For example, an enterprise might implement IGMP snooping on network switches to prevent multicast traffic from flooding all ports, configure multicast boundary filtering on routers, and implement authentication to prevent unauthorized hosts from joining sensitive multicast groups. Related terms: Multicast, Network protocol, IP multicast, IGMP snooping, Broadcast storm, Multicast security, Streaming media.