Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) Parameters

Last Updated

  • 2026-08-27

Available Formats

PIM-Hello Options

Registration Procedure(s)

  • First Come First Served (expire in 1 year); Specification Required for Permanent assignments

Expert(s)

  • Stig Venaas, Jeffrey (Zhaohui) Zhang

Reference

  • RFC 7761: Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification (Revised)
  • RFC 3973: Protocol Independent Multicast - Dense Mode (PIM-DM): Protocol Specification (Revised)

Available Formats

Value Length Name Reference
0 Reserved RFC 3973
1 2 Hold Time RFC 7761
2 4 LAN Prune Delay RFC 3973
3-16 - Reserved RFC 7761
17 16 Label Parameters (renew 8/01) Dino Farinacci
18 - Deprecated
19 4 DR Priority (renew 8/01) RFC 7761
20 4 Generation ID RFC 3973
21 4 State-Refresh RFC 3973
22 0 Bidirectional Capable RFC 5015
23 1 VCI Capability (renew 8/01) Dino Farinacci
24 variable Address List RFC 7761
25 variable Neighbor List TLV (renew 5/07) Alex Zinin
26 0 Join Attribute RFC 5384
27 variable PIM-over-TCP-Capable RFC 6559
28 variable PIM-over-SCTP-Capable RFC 6559
29 variable Pop-Count RFC 6807
30 0 PIM MT-ID RFC 6420
31 8 Interface ID RFC 6395
32 0 PIM ECMP Redirect Hello Option RFC 6754
33 2 vPC Peer ID (renew 6/14) Siddanagouda Khot
34 4 DR Load-Balancing Capability (DRLB-Cap) RFC 8775
35 variable DR Load-Balancing List (DRLB-List) RFC 8775
36 0 Hierarchical Join/Prune Attribute RFC 7887
37 variable DR Address Option draft-ietf-pim-dr-improvement-10
38 variable BDR Address Option draft-ietf-pim-dr-improvement-10
39 4 BFD Discriminator Option RFC 9186
40 0 Packed Assert Capability RFC 9466
41 0 GSI TLV support RFC-ietf-pim-pfm-forwarding-enhancements-08
42 0 PFM Optimization RFC-ietf-pim-pfm-forwarding-enhancements-08
43-65000 - Unassigned
65001-65535 - Reserved (Private Use)

PIM Join Attribute Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IETF Review

Reference

  • RFC 5384: The Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) Join Attribute Format

Available Formats

Value Name Reference
0 RPF Vector TLV RFC 5496
1 MVPN Join Attribute RFC 6513
2 MT-ID Join Attribute RFC 6420
3 Pop-Count RFC 6807
4 Explicit RPF Vector RFC 7891
5 Transport Attribute RFC 8059
6 Receiver RLOC Attribute RFC 8059
7-63 Unassigned

PIM Address Family

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IESG Approval

Reference

  • RFC 3973: Protocol Independent Multicast - Dense Mode (PIM-DM): Protocol Specification (Revised)
  • RFC 7761: Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification (Revised)

Available Formats

Value Description Reference
0-127 Same meaning as Address Family Numbers. See http://www.iana.org/assignments/address-family-numbers
128-250 Unassigned
251-255 Reserved for Private Use RFC 3973

PIM Address Encoding Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IETF Review

Reference

  • RFC 5384: The Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) Join Attribute Format
  • RFC 7761: Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode (PIM-SM): Protocol Specification (Revised)
  • RFC 7887: Hierarchical Join/Prune Attributes

Available Formats

Value Description Reference
0 native encoding for the address family RFC 7761
1 native encoding for the address family, but with one or more PIM Join Attributes present RFC 5384; RFC Errata 1597
2-255 Unassigned

PIM Message Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IETF Review

Reference

  • RFC 9436: PIM Message Type Space Extension and Reserved Bits

Available Formats

Type Name Flag Bits Reference
0 Hello 0-7: Unassigned RFC 3973; RFC 7761
1 Register 0-7: Unassigned RFC 7761
2 Register Stop 0: Packing Capability RFC 9465
1-7: Unassigned RFC 7761
3 Join/Prune 0-7: Unassigned RFC 3973; RFC 7761
4 Bootstrap 0-6: Unassigned RFC 5059; RFC 7761
7: No-Forward RFC 5059
5 Assert 0: Packed RFC 9466
1: Aggregated RFC 9466
2-7: Unassigned RFC 3973; RFC 7761
6 Graft 0-7: Unassigned RFC 3973
7 Graft-Ack 0-7: Unassigned RFC 3973
8 Candidate RP Advertisement 0-7: Unassigned RFC 7761
9 State Refresh 0-7: Unassigned RFC 3973
10 DF Election 0-3: Unassigned RFC 5015
4-7: Subtype RFC 5015
11 ECMP Redirect 0-7: Unassigned RFC 6754
12 PIM Flooding Mechanism 0-6: Unassigned RFC 8364
7: No-Forward RFC 8364
13.0 PIM Packed Null-Register 0-3: Unassigned RFC 9465
13.1 PIM Packed Register-Stop 0-3: Unassigned RFC 9465
13.2-15.14 Unassigned 0-3: Unassigned
15.15 Reserved 0-3: Reserved RFC 9436

PORT Message Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • RFC Required

Reference

  • RFC 6559: A Reliable Transport Mechanism for PIM

Available Formats

Type Name Reference
0 Reserved RFC 6559
1 Join/Prune RFC 6559
2 Keep-alive RFC 6559
3-65531 Unassigned
65532-65535 Experimental RFC 6559

PORT Option Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • RFC Required

Reference

  • RFC 6559: A Reliable Transport Mechanism for PIM

Available Formats

Type Name Reference
0 Reserved RFC 6559
1 PIM IPv4 Join/Prune RFC 6559
2 PIM IPv6 Join/Prune RFC 6559
3-32763 Unassigned Critical Options
32764-32767 Experimental RFC 6559
32768-65531 Unassigned Non-Critical Options
65532-65535 Experimental RFC 6559

PIM Join/Prune Transport Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IETF Review

Reference

  • RFC 8059: PIM Join Attributes for Locator/ID Separation Protocol (LISP) Environments

Available Formats

Value Description Reference
0 multicast RFC 8059
1 unicast RFC 8059
2-255 Unassigned

PIM Flooding Mechanism Message Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IETF Review

Reference

  • RFC 8364: PIM Flooding Mechanism (PFM) and Source Discovery (SD)

Available Formats

Type Name Reference
0 Reserved RFC 8364
1 Source Group Holdtime RFC 8364
2 Group Source Info RFC-ietf-pim-pfm-forwarding-enhancements-08
3-32767 Unassigned

PIM Designated Router Load-Balancing Hash Algorithms

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IETF Review

Reference

  • RFC 8775: PIM Designated Router Load Balancing

Available Formats

Type Name Reference
0 Modulo RFC 8775
1-255 Unassigned

PIM Flooding Mechanism Group Source Info Sub-TLV Types

Registration Procedure(s)

  • IETF Review

Reference

Available Formats

Type Name Reference
0-32767 Unassigned

Contact Information

Name Contact URI Last Updated
Alex Zinin zinin&psg.com 2006-05-01
Dino Farinacci dino&procket.com 2000-08
Siddanagouda Khot sikhot&cisco.com 2013-06-06