In a network where IP multicast traffic is transmitted for various multimedia applications, you can use the switch to reduce unnecessary bandwidth usage on a per-port basis by configuring IGMP. In the factory default state (IGMP disabled), the switch simply floods all IP multicast traffic it receives on a given VLAN through all ports on that VLAN (except the port on which it received the traffic.) This can result in significant and unnecessary bandwidth usage in networks where IP multicast traffic is a factor. Enabling IGMP allows the ports to detect IGMP queries and report packets and manage IP multicast traffic through the switch.

IGMP is useful in multimedia applications such as LAN TV, desktop conferencing, and collaborative computing, where there is multipoint communication, that is, communication from one to many hosts, or communication originating from many hosts and destined for many other hosts. In such multipoint applications, IGMP is configured on the hosts, and multicast traffic is generated by one or more servers (inside or outside of the local network.) Switches in the network (that support IGMP) can then be configured to direct the multicast traffic to only the ports where needed. If multiple VLANs are configured, you can configure IGMP on a per-VLAN basis.

Enabling IGMP allows detection of IGMP queries and report packets used to manage IP multicast traffic through the switch. If no other querier is detected, the switch then also functions as the querier. If you need to disable the querier feature, do so through the IGMP configuration MIB, see Configuring the querier function.