Difference between forwarding modes of Layer 2 multicast on an S series switch

After Layer 2 multicast is enabled on an S series switch, the switch maintains a Layer 2 multicast forwarding table. When receiving a multicast packet, the switch matches the multicast address of the packet with multicast forwarding entries to determine the outbound interface. Whether the switch determines the outbound interface based on the multicast IP address or multicast MAC address depends on the configured Layer 2 multicast forwarding mode.
Multiple multicast IP addresses may be mapped to one MAC address. If multicast data is forwarded based on the MAC address, multicast data may be sent to the users who do not order the multicast data. MAC address-based multicast forwarding can improve specifications in certain scenarios.
Different models support different Layer 2 multicast forwarding modes:
- The S1720, S2700SI, S2710SI, S2700EI, S2720, S2750EI, S5700S-LI, and S5700LI support only MAC address-based multicast forwarding.
- The S3700SI and S5710-C-LI support only IP address-based multicast forwarding.
- The S5700SI supports only IP address-based multicast forwarding in V200R002 and earlier versions, and supports MAC address-based and IP address-based forwarding modes starting from V200R003.
- The S3700EI, S3700HI, S5710-X-LI, S5720S-SI, S5720SI, S5700EI, S5710EI, S5720EI, S5700HI, S5710HI, S5720HI, S6700EI, S6720EI, S7700, S9700, S12700, S9300, and E600 support MAC address-based and IP address-based forwarding modes.