Multicast

From GridInfo

Multicast is the name given to a particular type of communication on computer networks. Information is sent more efficiently to multiple destinations than with the more conventional unicast method. In unicast communications, if a message is sent to several recipients, a separate copy of the message is produced by the sender for each of the recipients. In multicast interactions a single copy is produced by the sender, no matter how many recipients, and it is the downstream network infrastructure which makes copies of the data, as required, en route to the destinations. The important point is that unicast can be inefficient with poor scaling at the end of the sender, and this is particularly relevant for data-intensive communications such as those using live audio and video.

An example of an application using multicast for live audio and video is Access Grid.

External links

• Wikipedia article on multicast