Blocking Multicast to NX, DGX, or DVX Systems
Technical Support Guide
Table of Contents
Brand:
- AMX
Models:
- NX
- DGX
- DVX
Problem:
When the NX, DGX, or DVX are on the same VLAN as other hosts/devices (ie. Dante, QSC, SVSi, BSS, etc.), there is the potential for multicast traffic from those devices to interfere with the internal network communications used by the NX, DGX & DVX devices. This saturation can occur over time or in bursts depending on the number and type of devices and associated traffic. The NX Controllers have a 10/100 LAN port and should discard the multicast traffic packets but this still adds the burden of handling this while also communicating with all the registered AMX devices.
While the DGX 100 Series and DVX4k Series Switchers have a 100/1000 LAN port, the individual cards and endpoints only have 10/100 ethernet micro switches and are not able to disposition the unregistered multicast packets. For this reason, the external multicast traffic MUST be blocked at the network switch or else it will disrupt the internal communication of the DGX/DVX4K systems and could lead to offline events, cards rebooting, switch delays, etc. It is worth noticing that the DGX 4K60 cards and endpoints now rely solely on ethernet communication which is a change from the previous 2K/4K30 cards which utilized PDIF & I2C protocols for card/endpoint communication.
Solution:
The solution is to control/block multicast traffic on the network switch ports feeding the NX, DGX, or DVX. For best results, Harman reccommends using a separate VLAN for the AV Network and another VLAN for any other networked AV devices that rely on multicast regsistration. However, if a separate VLAN is not feasible, then the network switch must be managed to block unregisered multicast traffic to prevent flooding the AMX Contoller or Switcher devices.
Options: (Cisco Catalyst Switch settings)
Below are some commands used on Cisco Catalyst switches to block inbound and outbound multicast traffic.
(consult your network switch manual for model specific settings)
|
Block inbound Multicast (from other network devices) from coming into the NX, DGX, DVX device (This must be done to prevent multicast coming into the AMX devices) |
Switch>enable Switch# configure terminal Switch(config)# interface GigabitEthernet <PORT> Switch(config-if)# switchport block multicast Switch(config)# exit Switch# exit |
|
Block outbound Multicast (from the NX, DGX, DVX) from going out to other devices (This is optional and depends on the requirements of other devices on the network) |
Switch>enable Switch# configure terminal Switch(config)# interface GigabitEthernet <PORT> Switch(config-if)# storm-control multicast level 0 Switch(config)# exit Switch# exit |
Options: (Cisco Business Switch settings)
Below is a example web interface page for a Cisco CBS350 that allows filtering of Unregistered Multicast traffic per port.
(consult your network switch manual for model specific settings)
