On an IPv4 network, a host can communicate with other devices on the network by using the following transmission types:
- Unicast: The unicast transmission type is where one host communicates with another host directly, such as a client and server, or what is better referred to as a peer-to-peer network. This is a one-to-one transmission:
- Multicast: In a multicast transmission, a single host communicates with many other hosts on the network, but not all of them. This reduces the traffic on the network by sending the message to only those who need it. The devices that participate in multicast transmissions are called multicast groups. As mentioned earlier, the IPv4 Class D network range represents the multicast addresses 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255:
- Broadcast: In a broadcast transmission, a message is sent to all of the devices on the same network...