🎁 New User? Get 20% off your first purchase with code NEWUSER20 · ⚡ Instant download · 🔒 Secure checkout Register Now →
Menu

Categories

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

Token Bucket Algorithm
A rate limiting algorithm that allows burst traffic by accumulating tokens at a fixed rate and consuming them per request.
Network Packet
A formatted unit of data carried over a network, containing headers with routing information and a payload with the actual data.
TCP vs UDP
Two transport layer protocols: TCP provides reliable, ordered delivery while UDP provides fast, connectionless delivery without guarantees.
Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A geographically distributed network of servers that caches and delivers web content from locations closest to users for faster load times.
Anycast
A network routing technique where the same IP address is announced from multiple locations, directing users to the nearest server.
TCP/IP
The fundamental communication protocol suite of the internet that defines how data is packaged, addressed, transmitted, and received.
 View All Networking Terms →