Transmission Types: Unicast, Multicast, Broadcast, and Anycast

1. Overview

2. Description

2.1 Unicast

Unicast is the communication that there is only one receiver. This is one-to-one communication. If you have 100 recipient, you need to send 100 same messages. This will be bandwidth-intensive.

2.2 Multicast

Multicast is the communication that there is one more receiver. Only the members of the multicast group receive the multicast traffic. If you use Multicast Message, you can send the packet to the only related nodes with only one message. With multicast, you can send one message to a group of receivers. This is the main definition of multicast.

2.3 Broadcast

Broadcast is also the communication that there is one more receiver but this time, all the receivers receive broadcast traffic. If you use Broadcast Message, this time all the network nodes even if they do not need that message will receive the message. This is unnecessary traffic.

2.4 Anycast

Anycast is the communication that is developed with IPv6. With anycast, the traffic is received by the nearest receiver in a group of the receivers that has the same IP.

3. Reference

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr1u3LUwcek

https://ipcisco.com/lesson/unicast-broadcast-multicast-anycast/