Configuring multicast forwarding

There is sometimes confusion between the terms forwarding and routing. These two functions should not take place at the same time. Multicast forwarding should be enabled when the FortiGate is in NAT mode and you want to forward multicast packets between multicast routers and receivers. However, this function should not be enabled when the FortiGate itself is operating as a multicast router, or has an applicable routing protocol that uses multicast.

Multicast forwarding is not supported on enhanced MAC VLAN interfaces. To use multicast with enhanced MAC VLAN interfaces, use PIM (Multicast routing and PIM support).

There are two steps to configure multicast forwarding:

1. Enabling multicast forwarding
2. Configuring multicast policies

Enabling multicast forwarding

Multicast forwarding is enabled by default. If a FortiGate is operating in transparent mode, adding a multicast policy enables multicast forwarding. In NAT mode you must use the multicast-forward setting to enable or disable multicast forwarding.

Multicast forwarding in NAT mode

When multicast-forward is enabled, the FortiGate forwards any multicast IP packets in which the TTL is 2 or higher to all interfaces and VLAN interfaces, except the receiving interface. The TTL in the IP header will be reduced by 1. Even though the multicast packets are forwarded to all interfaces, you must add multicast policies to allow multicast packets through the FortiGate.

To enable multicast forwarding in NAT mode:

config system settings
    set multicast-forward enable
end

Prevent the TTL for forwarded packets from being changed

You can use the multicast-ttl-notchange option so that the FortiGate does not increase the TTL value for forwarded multicast packets. Use this option only if packets are expiring before reaching the multicast router.

To prevent the TTL for forwarded packets from being changed: 

config system settings
    set multicast-ttl-notchange enable
end	

Disable multicast traffic from passing through the FortiGate without a policy check in transparent mode

In transparent mode, the FortiGate does not forward frames with multicast destination addresses. The FortiGate should not interfere with the multicast traffic used by routing protocols, streaming media, or other multicast communication. To avoid any issues during transmission, you can disable multicast-skip-policy and configure multicast security policies.

To disable multicast traffic from passing through the FortiGate without a policy check in transparent mode:

config system settings
    set multicast-skip-policy disable
end

Configuring multicast policies

Multicast packets require multicast policies to allow packets to pass from one interface to another. Similar to firewall policies, in a multicast policy you specify the source and destination interfaces, and the allowed address ranges for the source and destination addresses of the packets. You can also use multicast policies to configure source NAT and destination NAT for multicast packets.

Keep the following in mind when configuring multicast policies:

• The matched forwarded (outgoing) IP multicast source IP address is changed to the configured IP address.
• The snat setting is optional. Use it when SNAT is needed.

IPv4 and IPv6 multicast policies can be configured in the GUI. Go to System > Feature Visibility, and enable Multicast Policy and IPv6.

Sample basic policy

In this basic policy, multicast packets received on an interface are flooded unconditionally to all interfaces on the forwarding domain, except the incoming interface.

config firewall multicast-policy
    edit 1
        set srcintf "any"
        set dstintf "any"
        set srcaddr "all"
        set dstaddr "all"
    next
end

The destination address (dstaddr) is a multicast address object. The all option corresponds to all multicast addresses in the range 224.0.0.0-239.255.255.255.

Sample policy with specific source and destination interfaces

This multicast policy only applies to the source port wan1 and the destination port internal.

config firewall multicast-policy
    edit 1
        set srcintf "wan1"
        set dstintf "internal"
        set srcaddr "all"
        set dstaddr "all"
    next
end

Sample policy with specific source address object

In this policy, packets are allowed to flow from wan1 to internal, and sourced by the address 172.20.120.129, which is represented by the example_addr-1 address object.

config firewall multicast-policy
    edit 1
        set srcintf "wan1"
        set dstintf "internal"
        set srcaddr "example_addr-1"
        set dstaddr "all"
    next
end

Sample detailed policy

This policy accepts multicast packets that are sent from a PC with IP address 192.168.5.18 to destination address range 239.168.4.0-255. The policy allows the multicast packets to enter the internal interface and then exit the external interface. When the packets leave the external interface, their source address is translated to 192.168.18.10.

config firewall address
    edit "192.168.5.18"
        set subnet 192.168.5.18 255.255.255.255
    next
end

config firewall multicast-address
    edit "239.168.4.0"
        set start-ip 239.168.4.0
        set end-ip 239.168.4.255
    next
end

config firewall multicast-policy
    edit 1
        set srcintf "internal"
        set dstintf "external"
        set srcaddr "192.168.5.18"
        set dstaddr "239.168.4.0"
        set snat enable
        set snat-ip 192.168.18.10
    next
end

To configure multicast policies in the GUI, enable Multicast Policy in System > Feature Visibility.