350-501 Services Practice Question
A service provider is designing a multicast solution for a Layer 3 VPN. They want to use MVPN with BGP signaling (draft-rosen). The PE routers are configured with VRF and multicast routing enabled. Which BGP address family must be enabled between PE routers to carry multicast routing information?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between the MCAST-VPN address family (used for MVPN signaling) and the VPNv4 address family (used for unicast VPN routes), leading candidates to mistakenly select VPNv4 when multicast is involved.
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
✓
MCAST-VPN address family
In a draft-rosen MVPN (Multicast VPN) implementation, BGP is used to signal multicast routing information between PE routers. The MCAST-VPN address family (AFI 25, SAFI 5) is specifically defined to carry multicast VPN routes, including Intra-AS I-PMSI A-D routes and S-PMSI A-D routes, enabling the exchange of multicast state and tunnel information across the MPLS/VPN backbone.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
MCAST-VPN address family
Why this is correct
The MCAST-VPN address family is used for MVPN signaling.
- ✗
MVPN does not use BGP; it uses PIM.
Why it's wrong here
draft-rosen uses BGP for auto-discovery and signaling.
- ✗
VPNv4 address family
Why it's wrong here
VPNv4 carries unicast routes only.
- ✗
IPv4 multicast address family
Why it's wrong here
Global multicast BGP is not for VPN context.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This 350-501 question is part of Courseiva's 971-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.