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Networking Advanced

What is Multicast?

A network communication method that sends data to multiple recipients simultaneously without duplicating packets for each recipient.

Multicast sends one packet that is replicated by the network to reach all interested receivers, unlike unicast (one-to-one) which requires separate packets per recipient. This is efficient for streaming media, stock market feeds, and software updates.

Multicast uses special IP ranges (224.0.0.0–239.255.255.255) and IGMP (Internet Group Management Protocol) for group membership. While efficient, multicast is complex to configure and not well supported across the public internet — mostly used in enterprise LANs and ISP networks.

Related Terms

QoS (Quality of Service)
A set of techniques for managing network traffic to prioritize certain types of data and ensure performance for critical applications.
MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit)
The maximum size of a data packet that can be transmitted over a network without fragmentation.
SDN (Software-Defined Networking)
An approach that separates the network control plane from the data plane, enabling centralized, programmable network management.
VPN (Virtual Private Network)
A technology that creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and a remote server, securing internet traffic.
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
A protocol that maps IP addresses to physical MAC addresses on a local network segment.
Network Packet
A formatted unit of data carried over a network, containing headers with routing information and a payload with the actual data.
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