Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

SamPT · Wed Dec 06, 2023 12:10 pm

Hello mikrotik community, first of all let me express my gratitude to this amazing forum. It is been almost 2 months since I have started using a mikrotik router and I've been able to achieve a lot just by reading/searching. Also the learning that I got from the public articles is way more than I expected to get. Long story short, I'm now fully converted to mikrotik.

Unfortunately I'm struggling with an issue, for which I would require some insights. let me explain what's happening:
- My ISP (Vodafone Portugal) TV Box works via IP.
- The first packets when you change channel go via unicast (this works).
- After ~30s the streaming changes to multicast and this is where the issue is at. No traffic flows (throughput drops from 7Mbps on assigned Ethernet port to 0)

My setup is as follows:
> rb750gr3 is connected to ISP router via ether1
> on ISP router unfortunately I can't bridge the ports, so mikrotik router is behind NAT , this is a limitation that Vodafone PT has.
> All ports in rb750gr3 are bridged through WAN
> IGMP snooping is enabled.

Here's a small diagram of my very simple and humble network:

What makes it work
- If you connect the TV Box directly to ISP router. This is expected.
- If you connect a switch (with igmp capabilities) to ISP router and then to TV Box.

Both are not valid options for me, the network cable that I run all the way down to the leaving room is also needed for other stuff that should be connected to mikrotik and not ISP router.
I know that the ISP router handles the traffic in different VLANs (100 for WAN, 105 for IPTV). But, since I have IGMP snooping enabled and everything is bridge, do I need to add the VLANs to mikrotik? I tried to do so, but it didn't work, or maybe I did something wrong along the way.

Any help on the matter would be really appreciated.

Here's my config:

 > system/routerboard/print
       routerboard: yes
        board-name: hEX
             model: RB750Gr3
          revision: r4
     serial-number: HEG08VC622P
     firmware-type: mt7621L
  factory-firmware: 6.48.6
  current-firmware: 6.48.6
  upgrade-firmware: 7.11.2

 /interface print detail
Flags: D - dynamic; X - disabled, R - running; S - slave; P - passthrough 
 0  R   ;;; Vodafone Router
        name="ether1[Internet]" default-name="ether1" type="ether" mtu=1500 
        actual-mtu=1500 l2mtu=1596 max-l2mtu=2026 mac-address=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:9E 
        ifname="eth0" ifindex=5 id=1 last-link-up-time=2023-11-09 19:02:26 
        link-downs=0 

 1  RS  name="ether2[Office_switch]" default-name="ether2" type="ether" mtu=1500 
        actual-mtu=1500 l2mtu=1596 max-l2mtu=2026 mac-address=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:9F 
        ifname="eth1" ifindex=6 id=2 last-link-up-time=2023-11-09 19:02:22 
        link-downs=0 

 2  RS  name="ether3[wifi]" default-name="ether3" type="ether" mtu=1500 
        actual-mtu=1500 l2mtu=1596 max-l2mtu=2026 mac-address=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:A0 
        ifname="eth2" ifindex=7 id=3 last-link-up-time=2023-11-09 19:03:01 
        link-downs=0 

 3  RS  name="ether4" default-name="ether4" type="ether" mtu=1500 actual-mtu=1500 
        l2mtu=1596 max-l2mtu=2026 mac-address=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:A1 ifname="eth3" 
        ifindex=8 id=4 last-link-down-time=2023-12-06 02:55:46 
        last-link-up-time=2023-12-06 02:55:48 link-downs=2 

 4   S  name="ether5" default-name="ether5" type="ether" mtu=1500 actual-mtu=1500 
        l2mtu=1596 max-l2mtu=2026 mac-address=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:A2 ifname="eth4" 
        ifindex=9 id=5 link-downs=0 

 5  R   ;;; WireGuard VPN
        name="WG_HomeVPN" type="wg" mtu=1420 actual-mtu=1420 ifname="wg8" 
        ifindex=12 id=8 last-link-up-time=2023-11-09 19:02:19 link-downs=0 

 6  R   ;;; WAN Network (Local)
        name="bridge[WAN]" type="bridge" mtu=auto actual-mtu=1500 l2mtu=1596 
        mac-address=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:9F ifname="br0" ifindex=46 id=6 
        last-link-down-time=2023-12-06 09:05:38 
        last-link-up-time=2023-12-06 09:05:38 link-downs=7 

/interface bridge print 
Flags: X - disabled, R - running 
 0 R ;;; WAN Network (Local)
     name="bridge[WAN]" mtu=auto actual-mtu=1500 l2mtu=1596 arp=enabled 
     arp-timeout=auto mac-address=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:9F protocol-mode=rstp 
     fast-forward=yes igmp-snooping=yes multicast-router=temporary-query 
     multicast-querier=no startup-query-count=2 last-member-query-count=2 
     last-member-interval=1s membership-interval=4m20s querier-interval=4m15s 
     query-interval=2m5s query-response-interval=10s 
     startup-query-interval=31s250ms igmp-version=3 mld-version=1 auto-mac=no 
     admin-mac=48:A9:8A:C6:A6:9F ageing-time=5m priority=0x8000 max-message-age=20s 
     forward-delay=15s transmit-hold-count=6 vlan-filtering=no dhcp-snooping=yes 
     add-dhcp-option82=no 



/ip address print
Flags: D - DYNAMIC
Columns: ADDRESS, NETWORK, INTERFACE
#   ADDRESS           NETWORK      INTERFACE       
;;; defconf
0   172.16.0.1/24     172.16.0.0   bridge[WAN]     
1   10.2.0.1/24       10.2.0.0     WG_HomeVPN      
2 D 192.168.1.210/24  192.168.1.0  ether1[Internet]


/ip firewall filter
add action=accept chain=input comment="defconf: accept established,related,untracked" connection-state=\
    established,related,untracked
add action=accept chain=input dst-port=51820 log=yes log-prefix=WG-FW-LOG protocol=udp
add action=accept chain=output out-interface=WG_HomeVPN
add action=accept chain=forward in-interface=WG_HomeVPN
add action=accept chain=input in-interface=WG_HomeVPN
add action=accept chain=input comment="defconf: accept ICMP" protocol=icmp
add action=accept chain=forward comment="defconf: accept established,related, untracked" connection-state=\
    established,related,untracked
add action=drop chain=input comment="defconf: drop invalid" connection-state=invalid log=yes
add action=accept chain=input comment="defconf: accept to local loopback (for CAPsMAN)" dst-address=127.0.0.1
add action=drop chain=input comment="defconf: drop all not coming from LAN" in-interface-list=!LAN
add action=accept chain=forward comment="defconf: accept in ipsec policy" ipsec-policy=in,ipsec
add action=accept chain=forward comment="defconf: accept out ipsec policy" ipsec-policy=out,ipsec
add action=fasttrack-connection chain=forward comment="defconf: fasttrack" connection-state=established,related hw-offload=yes
add action=drop chain=forward comment="defconf: drop invalid" connection-state=invalid
add action=drop chain=forward comment="defconf: drop all from WAN not DSTNATed" connection-nat-state=!dstnat connection-state=\
    new in-interface-list=WAN
    
/ip firewall nat
add action=masquerade chain=srcnat comment="Wireguard NAT" log-prefix=WIREGUARDLOGPIGGY out-interface=WG_HomeVPN
add action=masquerade chain=srcnat comment="defconf: masquerade" ipsec-policy=out,none out-interface-list=WAN
add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat comment="Filtered Cloudflare to NGINX" dst-port=443 in-interface="ether1[Internet]" protocol=\
    tcp src-address-list=cloudflare-ips to-addresses=172.16.0.44 to-ports=443


/ip firewall nat
add action=masquerade chain=srcnat comment="Wireguard NAT" log-prefix=WIREGUARDLOGPIGGY out-interface=WG_HomeVPN
add action=masquerade chain=srcnat comment="defconf: masquerade" ipsec-policy=out,none out-interface-list=WAN
add action=dst-nat chain=dstnat comment="Filtered Cloudflare to NGINX" dst-port=443 in-interface="ether1[Internet]" protocol=\
    tcp src-address-list=cloudflare-ips to-addresses=172.16.0.44 to-ports=443

dg1kwa · Wed Dec 06, 2023 2:17 pm

Hi,
I use IPTV from German Telekom, I think it is same Vodafone-System (2 VLANs, one for Inet and one for Multicast).

Can you look inside the MDB-Table from bridge? What you see there?

Best regards
Andreas

SamPT · Wed Dec 06, 2023 3:25 pm

Hey Andreas, is it working for you? I believe the Vodafone structure is the same cross region.

Here's my mdb table.
ether4 is where I have the TV Box connected.

> interface/bridge/mdb/print 
Flags: D - DYNAMIC
Columns: GROUP, ON-PORTS, BRIDGE
#   GROUP              ON-PORTS               BRIDGE     
0 D 228.250.250.250    ether3[wifi]           bridge[WAN]
1 D 229.255.255.250    ether3[wifi]           bridge[WAN]
2 D 239.0.5.1          ether4                 bridge[WAN]
3 D 239.255.255.250    ether3[wifi]           bridge[WAN]
                       ether2[Office_switch]             
                       ether4                            
4 D 239.255.255.251    ether3[wifi]           bridge[WAN]
5 D ff02::1:3          ether2[Office_switch]  bridge[WAN]
6 D ff02::1:ff7b:702f  ether3[wifi]           bridge[WAN]

dg1kwa · Wed Dec 06, 2023 5:40 pm

Hi,
I use it many years allready. First time the igmp snooping implementation was litte buggy.

Normaly the first 2-3 sec the tv signal is a unicast then it swich to multicast.

You can try to switch off igmp snooping. The multicast will then flooding to all ports but normaly it is no problem for the other devices.

Other question: you speak german?

Best regards
Andreas

SamPT · Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:54 pm

I speak English and Portuguese

I disabled IGMP snooping but with no success.
It works for 30seconds, and then when it falls to multicast it can't connect anymore.

By the way , the ISP router is a HS8247W. The connection to mikrotik is NAT with DMZ.

I don't know if you have the same scenario as I do, but could you share the configurations you have for the TV Box to work? Have you added the interface VLANs to mikrotik?

Thanks

SamPT · Fri Dec 08, 2023 2:13 pm

If all interfaces are under the same bridge interface, and the bridge interface has igmp snooping enabled I believe the multicast should work (acts as switch right?). It should be vlan agnostic since we can make it work with a standard switch.
So something is not working on the multicast announcement...

Any hints here would be highly appreciated

dg1kwa · Fri Dec 08, 2023 2:16 pm

please try to switch off igmp snooping and test again!

Guscht · Fri Dec 08, 2023 3:34 pm

You need an IGMP-Querier (to discover the Multicast-Groups). If you enable IGMP-Snooping but have no Querier, nothing works. IGMP-Snooping disabled is like Multicast behaves like Broadcast. Only the combination IGMP-Snooping enabled with a Querier works.

dg1kwa · Fri Dec 08, 2023 3:52 pm

correct but in this scenario the dsl router is the querier

https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/pages/vi ... d=59277403

Zacharias · Sat Dec 09, 2023 9:47 am

What i would do is, first of all upgrade to version 7 (if its not already upgraded), create appropriate vlans including one vlan dedicated to IPTV ( 105 if that's your IPTV vlan ), configure the Bridge vlan settings, mgmt vlan etc. and then enable bridge vlan filtering. After that multicast querier and igmp snooping on the bridge would be enabled.
Your streaming server and the clients should be on the IPTV vlan of course.
Notice that igmp snooping must be enabled on your other switches too if you want other wired clients to receive multicast traffic when asked.

** Before enabling the querier on rb750, you can use /interface bridge monitor yourBridge to check if any other querier exists on your network.

In your case i would try PIM SM too. https://help.mikrotik.com/docs/display/ROS/PIM-SM

SamPT · Sun Dec 10, 2023 5:27 pm

This is being quiet an interesting adventure, at least from learning perspective. Thanks for all your insights.

So here are the changes I did, and the outcomes.

I noticed that the Cable coming from ISP router (ether1) was not included in the Bridge Interface
I added it, and IPTV multicast started working.
- It doesn't need IGMP snooping, as the switch will act as bridge.
- But it works also with IGMP snooping... doesn't matter.

samadmin@MidgardEdge] <SAFE> /interface bridge monitor "bridge[WAN]"                                     
                     ;;; WAN Network (Local)
                  state: enabled
    current-mac-address: 48:A9:8A:C6:A6:9F
            root-bridge: yes
         root-bridge-id: 0x8000.48:A9:8A:C6:A6:9F
         root-path-cost: 0
              root-port: none
             port-count: 5
  designated-port-count: 4
           fast-forward: no
       multicast-router: yes
           igmp-querier: ether1[Internet] 10.99.29.173
            mld-querier: none


[samadmin@MidgardEdge] <SAFE> /interface bridge port monitor [find]                                       
              interface: ether2[Office_switch] ether3[wifi]    ether4          ether5        ether1[Internet]
                 status: in-bridge             in-bridge       in-bridge       in-bridge     in-bridge
            port-number: 1                     2               3               4             5
                   role: designated-port       designated-port designated-port disabled-port designated-port
              edge-port: yes                   yes             yes             no            yes
    edge-port-discovery: yes                   yes             yes             yes           yes
    point-to-point-port: yes                   yes             yes             yes           yes
           external-fdb: no                    no              no              no            no
           sending-rstp: yes                   yes             yes             yes           yes
               learning: yes                   yes             yes             no            yes
             forwarding: yes                   yes             yes             no            yes
       multicast-router: yes                   no              yes             no            yes

Now the problem is:
I can't add ether1 to the Bridge interface. This is the only cable connected from ISP router to mikrotik. If I add it to the Bridge , mikrotik will act as a switch (bridge) and no longer a router (Loosing internet access, and stop managing the network)

If I add a dedicated port between ISP router and Mikrotik for IPTV it would eventually lead to a loopback. Or can isolate by tagging the traffic with VLANs ?

Zacharias · Mon Dec 11, 2023 11:18 am

Use VLANs... Of course your wan port is not included inside the Bridge.
Also, if igmp-snooping is disabled then multicast traffic is flooded on all ports.

stefki · Wed Dec 13, 2023 7:10 pm

SamPT Can you make few tests with this iptv service from https://proskytv.net , it could be your provider issue. they offer trial

SamPT · Thu Dec 14, 2023 1:21 pm

stefki , standard IPTV services work.It is just Vodafone TVBOX that works over multicast that doesn't.

I figured out that the traffic coming from ISP router port is not tagged for the IPTV Lan (it must be being tagged somewhere else), so I can not isolate the iptv traffic on a ethernet port that is sharing internet+iptv connection.
If I use a second dedicated port on both MT router + ISP router, I can tag the traffic with any vlan of my choice and this would eventually be ok as I'm only allowing multicast traffic to flow on that secondary eth port.

Still, this is a band-aid , and I believe the optimal solution would be to apply PIM SM as suggested by Zacharias (thanks ! )

I will not waste additional time on this one as I decided to switch ISP, Vodafone Portugal has some strange network practices (no bridge, unexpected router updates, a lot of traffic shaping, and now multicast for TV Box)

Thanks for all the insights that everyone was able to share

I was not disappointed , learned a lot

tspascoal · Mon Dec 18, 2023 8:19 pm

It's a shame you haven't figured out this one. I would greatly benefit from it.

Would be an option to use a second port on rb750gr connect to the ISP router just for the vlan 105 traffic?

(not a network person, so trying to figure out this as well)

Tks

SamPT · Wed Dec 20, 2023 12:15 am

Well, you don't really need to sacrifice a port for that, you can tag both mgmt and IPTV vlans under the same interface.
The problem here is that the multicast server it's outside of Vodafone router , on mikrotik I was unable to route multicast traffic, but I bet that the suggested solution with some additional attempts would work, if I understood the doc explanation it's all about routing and identifying the right peers.

It's a pitty that I didn't reach a positive result, but I leave the floor open for whoever wants to take a leap (more of a leak

) of faith

un9edsda · Sat Jan 13, 2024 3:11 am

The problem here is that the multicast server it's outside of Vodafone router , on mikrotik I was unable to route multicast traffic, but I bet that the suggested solution with some additional attempts would work, if I understood the doc explanation it's all about routing and identifying the right peers.

It's a pitty that I didn't reach a positive result, but I leave the floor open for whoever wants to take a leap (more of a leak ) of faith

You may want to have a look at:

topics for hints. Tough instead of IGMP Proxy and multicast querier (on the router as used in the first one of the above two suggestions) using PIM-SM as described by @DarkNate is a better practice.

Tamarael · Mon Mar 04, 2024 2:45 am

Hey Sam, I am so happy to find your post here and I believe you might be able to help me. I unfortunately cannot change ISPs now due to the contract I have with Vdf.

For me I believe your latest working setup might work. I am also based in Portugal in the Lisbon area, if you could let me know how you set up your equipment, I would appreciate.

I am very noob with my Mikrotik at this time, but I love learning so I believe this may work for me.

Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Re: Multicast not working for ISP TV BOX (Vodafone)

Who is online