What happens when two Candidate RPs want to become an RP for the same group?

In situations where two Candidate Rendezvous Points (RPs) are vying for the role of RP for the same group within a multicast network, the router configuration dictates that the RP with the highest IP address is preferred. This is part of the administrative decision process that Cisco protocols employ to determine which RP will take on the responsibility for managing multicast traffic.

The selection process is significant for ensuring a reliable and predictable operation of multicast routing. If two potential RPs announce themselves as candidates for the same multicast group, the one with the higher IP address will be elected as the active RP, as defined by PIM (Protocol Independent Multicast). This mechanism helps avoid ambiguity about which RP should be used in a network, thus facilitating smoother multicast communications.

Conversely, other options do not align with the actual behavior of the RP selection process. A lower IP address or random selection does not influence which RP is chosen; these methods would introduce potential instability and inconsistency in the multicast group designation. Furthermore, while priority is a concept in networking, by default, the priority is not considered unless explicitly configured, which is outside the standard behavior of candidate RPs competing based solely on their IP addresses. Therefore, the RP with the highest IP address being selected is the definitive