Meaning – The term multicast, refers to a special form of broadcast in which copies of a packet are delivered to only a subset of all possible destinations.
A multicast is a transmission of data from a single source to multiple recipients. Multicasting is similar to broadcasting, but only transmits information to specific users.
Multicasts that take place over the Internet are known as IP multicasts since they use the Internet protocol (IP) to transmit data. IP multicasts create “multicast trees,” which allow a single transmission to branch out to individual users.
Multicasting has several different applications. It is commonly used for streaming media over the Internet, such as live TV and Internet radio.
Example of usage – “IP multicasting works by combining two other protocols with the Internet protocol. One is the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP), which allows users or client systems use to request access to a stream. The other is Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM), which is used by network routers to create multicast trees.”
