1 .\" Copyright (c) 1995 by the University of Southern California
2 .\" All rights reserved.
4 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
5 .\" documentation in source and binary forms for non-commercial purposes
6 .\" and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright
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8 .\" this permission notice appear in supporting documentation, and that
9 .\" any documentation, advertising materials, and other materials related
10 .\" to such distribution and use acknowledge that the software was
11 .\" developed by the University of Southern California, Information
12 .\" Sciences Institute. The name of the University may not be used to
13 .\" endorse or promote products derived from this software without
14 .\" specific prior written permission.
16 .\" THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA makes no representations about
17 .\" the suitability of this software for any purpose. THIS SOFTWARE IS
18 .\" PROVIDED "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
19 .\" INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
20 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
22 .\" Other copyrights might apply to parts of this software and are so
23 .\" noted when applicable.
25 .\" This manual page (but not the software) was derived from the
26 .\" manual page for the traceroute program which bears the following
29 .\" Copyright (c) 1988 The Regents of the University of California.
30 .\" All rights reserved.
32 .\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.sbin/mrouted/mtrace.8,v 1.12.2.6 2003/03/11 22:31:29 trhodes Exp $
33 .\" $DragonFly: src/usr.sbin/mrouted/mtrace.8,v 1.4 2008/05/02 02:05:08 swildner Exp $
40 .Nd print multicast path from a source to a receiver
66 Assessing problems in the distribution of IP multicast traffic
70 utility utilizes a tracing feature implemented in multicast routers that is
71 accessed via an extension to the IGMP protocol. A trace query is
72 passed hop-by-hop along the reverse path from the
76 collecting hop addresses, packet counts, and routing error conditions
77 along the path, and then the response is returned to the requestor.
79 The only required parameter is the
81 host name or address. The default
83 is the host running mtrace, and the default
85 is 0.0.0.0, which is sufficient if packet loss
86 statistics for a particular multicast group are not needed. These two
87 optional parameters may be specified to test the path to some other
88 receiver in a particular group, subject to some constraints as
89 detailed below. The two parameters can be distinguished because the
91 is a unicast address and the
93 is a multicast address.
96 flag is specified, the source address defaults to the host running
98 and the receiver defaults to the router being addressed with
101 flag. In this case, there are no required parameters.
103 NOTE: For Solaris 2.4/2.5, if the multicast interface is not the default
106 option must be used to set the local address.
108 The following options are available:
109 .Bl -tag -width indent
110 .It Fl e Ar extrahops
113 hops past a non-responding router.
115 Send the trace query via unicast directly to the multicast router
117 rather than multicasting the query.
118 This must be the last-hop router on the path from the intended
124 Versions 3.3 and 3.5 of
126 will crash if a trace query is received via a
131 address. Therefore, do not use the
133 option unless the target
135 has been verified to be 3.4 or newer than 3.5.
139 as the local interface address (on a multi-homed host) for sending the
140 trace query and as the default for the
142 and the response destination.
144 Loop indefinitely printing packet rate and loss statistics for the
145 multicast path every 10 seconds (see
146 .Fl S Ar stat_int ) .
148 Always request the response using multicast rather than attempting
149 unicast for the last half of the tries.
153 the maximum number of hops that will be traced from the
157 The default is 32 hops (infinity for the DVMRP routing protocol).
159 Print hop addresses numerically rather than symbolically and numerically
160 (saves a nameserver address-to-name lookup for each router found on the
163 Set the maximum number of query attempts for any hop to
167 Do not use the Router-Alert IP option on those requests which need it.
168 Some versions of Cisco's IOS cannot handle
169 multicast traceroutes with IP options, so it may be necessary to use the
171 flag if the last-hop router is a Cisco.
173 Listen passively for multicast responses from traces initiated by
174 others. This works best when run on a multicast router.
176 Loop indefinitely collecting the path every 10 seconds (see
178 and printing it when it changes. Do not print any statistics.
180 Send the trace response to
182 rather than to the host on which
184 is being run, or to a multicast address other than the one registered
185 for this purpose (224.0.1.32).
187 Print a short form output including only the multicast path and not
188 the packet rate and loss statistics.
190 Change the interval between statistics gathering traces to
192 seconds (default 10 seconds).
196 (time-to-live, or number of hops) for multicast trace queries and
197 responses. The default is 127, except for local queries to the "all
198 routers" multicast group which use ttl 1.
200 "Tunnel statistics" mode; show loss rates for overall traffic.
201 These statistics can be extremely misleading.
203 Always request the response using unicast rather than attempting
206 Verbose mode; show hop times on the initial trace and statistics display.
207 Also show the route that was used to forward the initial trace.
209 Set the time to wait for a trace response to
211 seconds (default 3 seconds).
215 The technique used by the
217 utility to trace unicast network paths will not work for IP multicast
218 because ICMP responses are specifically forbidden for multicast traffic.
219 Instead, a tracing feature has been built into the multicast routers.
220 This technique has the advantage that additional information about
221 packet rates and losses can be accumulated while the number of packets
225 reverse path forwarding, the trace is run backwards from the
229 A trace query packet is sent to the last
230 hop multicast router (the leaf router for the desired
232 address). The last hop router builds a trace response packet, fills in
233 a report for its hop, and forwards the trace packet using unicast to
234 the router it believes is the previous hop for packets originating
237 Each router along the path adds its report and forwards the packet.
238 When the trace response packet reaches the first hop router (the router
239 that is directly connected to the source's net), that router sends the
240 completed response to the response destination address specified in
243 If some multicast router along the path does not implement the
244 multicast traceroute feature or if there is some outage, then no
245 response will be returned. To solve this problem, the trace query
246 includes a maximum hop count field to limit the number of hops traced
247 before the response is returned. That allows a partial path to be
250 The reports inserted by each router contain not only the address of
251 the hop, but also the ttl required to forward and some flags to indicate
252 routing errors, plus counts of the total number of packets on the
253 incoming and outgoing interfaces and those forwarded for the specified
255 Taking differences in these counts for two traces separated in time
256 and comparing the output packet counts from one hop with the input
257 packet counts of the next hop allows the calculation of packet rate
258 and packet loss statistics for each hop to isolate congestion
260 .Ss Finding the Last-Hop Router
261 The trace query must be sent to the multicast router which is the
262 last hop on the path from the
266 If the receiver is on the local subnet (as determined using the subnet
267 mask), then the default method is to multicast the trace query to
268 all-routers.mcast.net (224.0.0.2) with a ttl of 1. Otherwise, the
269 trace query is multicast to the
271 address since the last hop router will be a member of that group if
272 the receiver is. Therefore it is necessary to specify a group that
273 the intended receiver has joined. This multicast is sent with a
274 default ttl of 127, which may not be sufficient for all cases (changed
278 If the last hop router is known, it may also be addressed directly
281 option). Alternatively, if it is desired to trace a group that the
282 receiver has not joined, but it is known that the last-hop router is a
283 member of another group, the
285 option may also be used to specify a different multicast address for the
288 When tracing from a multihomed host or router, the default receiver
289 address may not be the desired interface for the path from the source.
290 In that case, the desired interface should be specified explicitly as
293 .Ss Directing the Response
296 first attempts to trace the full reverse path, unless the number of
297 hops to trace is explicitly set with the
299 option. If there is no response within a 3 second timeout interval
302 option), a "*" is printed and the probing switches to hop-by-hop mode.
303 Trace queries are issued starting with a maximum hop count of one and
304 increasing by one until the full path is traced or no response is
305 received. At each hop, multiple probes are sent (default is three,
308 option). The first half of the attempts (default is two) are made with
309 the reply address set to standard multicast address, mtrace.mcast.net
310 (224.0.1.32) with the ttl set to 32 more than what's needed to pass the
311 thresholds seen so far along the path to the receiver. For each
312 additional attempt, the ttl is increased by another 32 each time up to
313 a maximum of 192. Since the desired router may not be able to send a
314 multicast reply, the remainder of the attempts request that the
315 response be sent via unicast to the host running
317 Alternatively, the multicast ttl may be set explicitly with the
319 option, the initial multicast attempts can be forced to use unicast
322 option, the final unicast attempts can be forced to use multicast
325 option, or if you specify
328 will first attempt using unicast and then multicast. For each attempt,
329 if no response is received within the timeout, a "*" is printed. After
330 the specified number of attempts have failed,
332 will try to query the next hop router with a DVMRP_ASK_NEIGHBORS2
333 request (as used by the
335 program) to see what kind of router it is.
338 utility will try to query three (changed with the
340 option) hops past a non-responding router, in the hopes that even
341 though it isn't capable of sending a response, it might be capable of
342 forwarding the request on.
346 is in two sections. The first section is a short listing of the hops
347 in the order they are queried, that is, in the reverse of the order
352 For each hop, a line is printed showing the hop number (counted
353 negatively to indicate that this is the reverse path); the multicast
354 routing protocol (DVMRP, MOSPF, PIM, etc.); the threshold required to
355 forward data (to the previous hop in the listing as indicated by the
356 up-arrow character); and the cumulative delay for the query to reach
357 that hop (valid only if the clocks are synchronized). This first
358 section ends with a line showing the round-trip time which measures
359 the interval from when the query is issued until the response is
360 received, both derived from the local system clock, and the total
361 ttl required for a packet to travel along this path. A sample use and
364 oak.isi.edu 80# mtrace -l caraway.lcs.mit.edu 224.2.0.3
365 Mtrace from 18.26.0.170 to 128.9.160.100 via group 224.2.0.3
366 Querying full reverse path...
367 0 oak.isi.edu (128.9.160.100)
368 -1 cub.isi.edu (128.9.160.153) DVMRP thresh^ 1 3 ms
369 -2 la.dart.net (140.173.128.1) DVMRP thresh^ 1 14 ms
370 -3 dc.dart.net (140.173.64.1) DVMRP thresh^ 1 50 ms
371 -4 bbn.dart.net (140.173.32.1) DVMRP thresh^ 1 63 ms
372 -5 mit.dart.net (140.173.48.2) DVMRP thresh^ 1 71 ms
373 -6 caraway.lcs.mit.edu (18.26.0.170)
374 Round trip time 124 ms; total ttl of 6 required.
377 If a hop reports that it is using the default route to forward packets,
380 is printed after that hop. If the
382 flag is supplied, the route being used to forward packets is printed
386 The second section provides a pictorial view of the path in the
387 forward direction with data flow indicated by arrows pointing downward
388 and the query path indicated by arrows pointing upward. For each hop,
389 both the entry and exit addresses of the router are shown if
390 different, along with the initial ttl required on the packet in order
391 to be forwarded at this hop and the propagation delay across the hop
392 assuming that the routers at both ends have synchronized clocks.
393 The right half of this section is composed of two sets of statistics.
394 The first column contains the average packet rate for all traffic at
396 The remaining columns are the
397 number of packets lost, the number of packets sent, the percentage
398 lost, and the average packet rate at each hop. These statistics are
399 calculated from differences between traces and from hop to hop as
400 explained above. The first group shows the statistics for all traffic
401 flowing out the interface at one hop and in the interface at the next
402 hop. The second group shows the statistics only for traffic forwarded
407 The first group of statistics may be expanded to include loss rates
410 option. However, these numbers can be extremely misleading and require
411 detailed knowledge of the routers involved to be interpreted properly.
413 These statistics are shown on one or two lines for each hop. Without
414 any options, this second section of the output is printed only once,
415 approximately 10 seconds after the initial trace. One line is shown
416 for each hop showing the statistics over that 10-second period. If
419 option is given, the second section is repeated every 10 seconds and
420 two lines are shown for each hop. The first line shows the statistics
421 for the last 10 seconds, and the second line shows the cumulative
422 statistics over the period since the initial trace, which is 101
423 seconds in the example below. The second section of the output is
426 option is set or if no multicast group is specified.
428 Waiting to accumulate statistics... Results after 101 seconds:
430 Source Response Dest Overall Packet Statistics For Traffic From
431 18.26.0.170 128.9.160.100 Packet 18.26.0.170 To 224.2.0.3
432 | __/ rtt 125 ms Rate Lost/Sent = Pct Rate
433 v / hop 65 ms ------- ---------------------
435 140.173.48.2 mit.dart.net
436 | ^ ttl 1 0 pps 0/2 = --% 0 pps
437 v | hop 8 ms 0 pps 0/18 = 0% 0 pps
439 140.173.32.1 bbn.dart.net
440 | ^ ttl 2 0 pps 0/2 = --% 0 pps
441 v | hop 12 ms 0 pps 0/18 = 0% 0 pps
443 140.173.64.1 dc.dart.net
444 | ^ ttl 3 27 pps 0/2 = --% 0 pps
445 v | hop 34 ms 26 pps 0/18 = 0% 0 pps
447 140.173.128.1 la.dart.net
448 | ^ ttl 4 83 pps 0/2 = --% 0 pps
449 v | hop 11 ms 79 pps 0/18 = 0% 0 pps
451 128.9.160.153 cub.isi.edu
452 | \\__ ttl 5 83 pps ?/2 0 pps
453 v \\ hop -8 ms 79 pps ?/18 0 pps
454 128.9.160.100 128.9.160.100
455 Receiver Query Source
458 Because the packet counts may be changing as the trace query is
459 propagating, there may be small errors (off by 1 or 2) in these
460 statistics. However, those errors should not accumulate, so the
461 cumulative statistics line should increase in accuracy as a new trace
462 is run every 10 seconds. There are two sources of larger errors, both
463 of which show up as negative losses:
465 If the input to a node is from a multi-access network with more than
466 one other node attached, then the input count will be (close to) the
467 sum of the output counts from all the attached nodes, but the output
468 count from the previous hop on the traced path will be only part of
469 that. Hence the output count minus the input count will be negative.
471 In release 3.3 of the DVMRP multicast forwarding software for SunOS
472 and other systems, a multicast packet generated on a router will be
473 counted as having come in an interface even though it did not. This
474 creates the negative loss that can be seen in the example above.
476 Note that these negative losses may mask positive losses.
478 In the example, there is also one negative hop time. This simply
479 indicates a lack of synchronization between the system clocks across
480 that hop. This example also illustrates how the percentage loss is
481 shown as two dashes when the number of packets sent is less than 10
482 because the percentage would not be statistically valid.
484 A second example shows a trace to a receiver that is not local; the
485 query is sent to the last-hop router with the
487 option. In this example, the trace of the full reverse path resulted
488 in no response because there was a node running an old version of
490 that did not implement the multicast traceroute function, so
492 switched to hop-by-hop mode. The
495 indicates that traffic for group 224.2.143.24 would not be forwarded.
497 oak.isi.edu 108# mtrace -g 140.173.48.2 204.62.246.73 \\
498 butter.lcs.mit.edu 224.2.143.24
499 Mtrace from 204.62.246.73 to 18.26.0.151 via group 224.2.143.24
500 Querying full reverse path... * switching to hop-by-hop:
501 0 butter.lcs.mit.edu (18.26.0.151)
502 -1 jam.lcs.mit.edu (18.26.0.144) DVMRP thresh^ 1 33 ms Output pruned
503 -2 bbn.dart.net (140.173.48.1) DVMRP thresh^ 1 36 ms
504 -3 dc.dart.net (140.173.32.2) DVMRP thresh^ 1 44 ms
505 -4 darpa.dart.net (140.173.240.2) DVMRP thresh^ 16 47 ms
506 -5 * * * noc.hpc.org (192.187.8.2) [mrouted 2.2] didn't respond
507 Round trip time 95 ms
518 based on an initial prototype written by
519 .An Ajit Thyagarajan .
520 The multicast traceroute mechanism was designed by
528 it was implemented in
534 The option syntax and the output format of
536 are modeled after the unicast
541 Statistics collection in passive mode doesn't always produce the same output
542 as when actively collecting data.