7.1. Extensions to the IP Service Interface

Incoming multicast IP datagrams are received by upper-layer protocol modules using the same "Receive IP" operation as normal, unicast datagrams. Selection of a destination upper-layer protocol is based on the protocol field in the IP header, regardless of the destination IP address. However, before any datagrams destined to a particular group can be received, an upper-layer protocol must ask the IP module to join that group. Thus, the IP service interface must be extended to provide two new operations:

                 JoinHostGroup  ( group-address, interface )

                 LeaveHostGroup ( group-address, interface )

The JoinHostGroup operation requests that this host become a member of the host group identified by "group-address" on the given network interface. The LeaveGroup operation requests that this host give up its membership in the host group identified by "group-address" on the given network interface. The interface argument may be omitted on hosts that support only one interface. For hosts that may be attached to more than one network, the upper-layer protocol may choose to leave the interface unspecified, in which case the request will apply to the default interface for sending multicast datagrams (see section 6.1).

It is permissible to join the same group on more than one interface, in which case duplicate multicast datagrams may be received. It is also permissible for more than one upper-layer protocol to request membership in the same group.

Both operations should return immediately (i.e., they are non- blocking operations), indicating success or failure. Either operation may fail due to an invalid group address or interface identifier. JoinHostGroup may fail due to lack of local resources. LeaveHostGroup may fail because the host does not belong to the given group on the given interface. LeaveHostGroup may succeed, but the membership persist, if more than one upper-layer protocol has requested membership in the same group.