Using Multicast Addressing

Using Multicast Addressing
Just as with mailing lists, there are several different groups that users or applications can subscribe
to. The range of multicast addresses starts with 224.0.0.0 and goes through 239.255.255.255. As
you can see, this range of addresses falls within IP Class D address space based on classful IP assignment.
This is denoted by the first four bits in the first octet being set to 1110. Just as with regular IP
addresses, there are some addresses that can be assigned and there are ranges of reserved addresses.
It is important to recognize that the reserved addresses are categorized. Table 19.1 depicts
some of the reserved addresses and their corresponding categories. For a full listing of these
assignments, you can go to
www.iana.org/assignments/multicast-addresses
.