Multicast

Overview

Networks use several different methods to send information to devices. Unicast is a two way communication between just two devices. Broadcast is one device talking to every other device on the same network. Typically this is a "short term" interaction looking for something like DHCP. Multicast is is often a ''long term" conversation in which lots of devices are constantly sharing information with each other. We often refer to this as "chatty," and it can be very disruptive to normal operations if not configured properly. Dante and QSys are protocols used by AVL to provide sound and/or video over the network that use multicast. NDI is a video protocol that uses multicast.

tags: #AVL #BasicTerms #networking