title: Multicast Listener Discovery
text: # Multicast Listener Discovery
  
  Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) is a component of the Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) suite. MLD is used by IPv6 routers for discovering multicast listeners on a directly attached link, much like Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is used in IPv4. The protocol is embedded in ICMPv6 instead of using a separate protocol. MLDv1 is similar to IGMPv2 and MLDv2 similar to IGMPv3.
  
  ## Protocol
  
  The ICMPv6 messages use type 143.
  
  ## Support
  
  Several operating system support MLDv2:
  
  * Windows Vista and later
  * FreeBSD since release 8.0
  * The Linux kernel since 2.5.68
  * macOS
  