About this interactive
The lesson's four types:
- **Unicast:** one device sends to one other device. Directed traffic, one destination.
- **Broadcast:** a message that reaches all devices on the network.
- **Multicast:** devices subscribe to a multicast address; a message sent to that address reaches those devices. One to many, not one to all.
- **Anycast:** several machines provide the same service for redundancy and share one address. A request to it is delivered to one of them, normally the nearest, not to all.
Ask: how many receive it, and did they choose to?
What you'll learn
- Classify a transmission as unicast (one sender to one destination), multicast (to the devices subscribed to a group address), anycast (to one member of a group sharing an address) or broadcast (to every device on the network)
Aligned to
CompTIA Network+
1.4
Explain common networking ports, protocols, services, and traffic types.
Cisco CCST Networking
1.1
Identify the fundamental conceptual building blocks of networks
Key terms
- Unicast
- A transmission type in which a packet is sent from one source directly to one specific destination device, identified by its unique IP or MAC address. Unicast is the standard delivery method for most internet traffic such as web browsing and file downloads.
- Multicast
- A transmission type in which data is sent from one source to a specific group of devices that have subscribed to a multicast group address, rather than to all devices or just one. This differs from broadcast (all devices) and unicast (one device).
- Anycast
- A transmission type where data is sent to an anycast address and delivered to only one of several devices associated with that address, typically the nearest or best-available one.
- Broadcast
- A transmission type in which one device sends a single packet that is delivered to every other device on the local network segment simultaneously. Broadcast traffic is contained within a broadcast domain and does not cross router boundaries.
- Redundancy
- The duplication of critical components or systems to increase reliability and availability.
Topics
Unicast
Multicast
Anycast
Broadcast
Traffic Types
Interactive
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