IP Multicast Technologies

This section introduces IP multicast and the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP), Cisco Group Management Protocol (CGMP), and Protocol Independent Multicast (PIM) protocols.

Introduction to Multicast

This section compares multicast with unicast and introduces the concept of a multicast group. The types of applications that benefit from the use of multicasting are discussed, multicast adoption trends are reviewed, and how an application or user learns about available multicast sessions is described. The advantages and disadvantages of multicast are described, and the basics of IP and Layer 2 multicast addresses and multicast address assignment are introduced. The section concludes with an introduction to the Cisco multicast architecture.