350-501 Networking Practice Question
A service provider is deploying multicast service for IPTV using PIM-SM with a single RP. During high traffic periods, the RP becomes overloaded. What is the most scalable solution to distribute the load across multiple RPs?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the misconception that Bidirectional PIM or simply upgrading hardware can solve RP overload, but the key is that Anycast-RP is the only option that distributes the RP load across multiple devices while maintaining a single RP address for the multicast domain.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use Anycast-RP
Anycast-RP allows multiple RPs to share the same IP address, enabling load distribution and redundancy. In PIM-SM, sources register with the nearest RP via unicast routing, and receivers join toward the same Anycast-RP address, which is routed to the closest physical RP. This distributes the registration and join processing load across multiple RPs without requiring protocol changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use Anycast-RP
Why this is correct
Anycast-RP allows multiple RPs under a single RP address, distributing the load.
- ✗
Use Bidirectional PIM
Why it's wrong here
Bidirectional PIM does not distribute the processing load across multiple RPs to alleviate an overloaded single RP in PIM-SM. Instead, it changes the multicast forwarding model to a shared tree only, eliminating source-specific state (S,G) on the RP and routers. This makes it suitable for many-to-many applications with numerous, dynamic sources, where the goal is to reduce state maintenance on the RP and network devices, not to distribute the processing burden of source registrations across multiple active RPs for a given group.
- ✗
Increase the RP's memory and CPU
Why it's wrong here
This is a short-term fix, not a scalable solution.
- ✗
Use PIM-DM
Why it's wrong here
PIM-DM uses flood-and-prune, which is inefficient for large-scale networks.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 350-501 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 350-501 exam.