[ntp:hackers] Broadcast/multicast commands

David L. Mills mills at udel.edu
Mon Dec 3 19:47:08 GMT 2007


Guys,

Occasionally I get requests to enable broadcast reception on a specific 
local subnet when a client is connected to more than one. This applies 
expecially to certain redundant configurations. Right now, the broadcast 
command is used for both IPv4 broadcast and multicast and IPv6 broadcast 
configurations, but separate broacastclient and multicastclient commands 
are necessary.

It would be nice if the broadcastclient command could be used for all 
configurations supported by the broadcast command. Howeve, this appears 
to be in conflict with the current syntax, which takes a single argument 
in the broadcast command to suppress the delay volley. This function can 
now alternatedly be controlled by the broadcast delay command. If the 
above functionality can be implemented, I propose to eliminate the argument.

In summary, the broadcast commend semantics remains the same. The 
multicastclient functionality is moved to the broadcastclient and the 
multicastclient command removed. Multiple broadcast client addresses are 
supported in the same broadcastclient command. The default in this 
command is to listen to all interfaces as it does now.

The resullt would be a lot cleaner and more obvious to the newbie, as 
well as provided useful functionality in multi-homed redundant 
configurations.

Dave


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