Multicast Overview

Multicast Overview
Just as blue, yellow, and red are different and each has its own place within the spectrum of
visible light, unicast, broadcast, and multicast are different in that each is used to achieve a
specific purpose or fulfill requirements of a specific part of the communication spectrum. It
is important to know where each falls within the spectrum as well as the potential applications
for each.
RFC 1112 discusses multicast and goes into great detail about host extensions and multicast
groups. In addition to address assignment for multicast applications and hosts, protocol
methods and procedures are discussed. For example, it covers the methods by which
hosts join and leave multicast groups, and it also covers group advertisements and multicast
forwarding.