Heavy Networking 673: Multicast DNS Gone Wild On Your WLAN

You know all those Apple and other IoT devices connected to your wireless network? Lots of them are running apps that discover services on your network via multicast DNS (mDNS). All of that mDNS traffic can have a real, measurable, and surprisingly significant impact on your Wi-Fi LAN’s performance. Bryan Ward has actually measured the impact of mDNS on a production network. Bryan is the Lead Network Engineer at Dartmouth College, a sizable institution of higher learning in the United States. Bryan got permission to perform testing on a production segment to see what would happen if he let mDNS traffic run wild. We discuss: * What multicast DNS (mDNS) is and what it’s used for * Why mDNS is a particular concern for wireless networks * Multicast vs. multiple unicasts of multicast frames in wireless networks * Bryan’s testing methodology * Key findings * Suggestions for using mDNS in your own network * More Show Links: Apples to Apples – Bryan Ward’s Presentation Apples to Apples: An Analysis of the Effects of mDNS Traffic – Bryan Ward via YouTube @_bryan_ward_ – Bryan Ward on Twitter