Chapter 8. Designing IP Multicast Services

After completing this chapter, you will be able to

• Examine Internet Protocol (IP) multicast services

• Design IP multicast solutions for enterprise networks

Multicasting facilitates delivery of a single stream of information to multiple recipients without excessive utilization of available network bandwidth. Video conferencing, corporate communications, distance learning, and distribution of software are some of the popular applications of IP multicasting. Multicast packets are replicated in the network by routers enabled with Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) and other supporting multicast protocols, resulting in efficient delivery of data to multiple receivers at different network locations.