How Multicasting can be used with applications

Multicasting is a viable option for many types of transmissions.

Multicasting is widely used in local area networks for various purposes. Moreover, multicasting can be used both for receiving a publicly transmitted session on an intranet, or for transmitting an internal communication to a public network (for example, for announcing a product launch). Multicasting is particularly important solution for bandwidth-intensive applications, such as multimedia. The most typical protocol for multicast traffic is UDP.

Multicasting can be a suitable solution, for example, for the following applications:
  • Work groups, electronic whiteboards.
  • Video/voice-over-IP conferences.
  • Real-time streaming media (for example, Internet radio).
  • File transfer.
  • Spreading of any information to certain selected destinations.