Multicast
About Multicast
Multicast is communication between a single sender and multiple receivers on a network. The delivery of information is simultaneous and utilizes the most efficient strategy to transport the messages over each link of the network only once, creating copies only when the links to the destinations split.
Because of its properties, multicast is used for delivering image files, such as during the simultaneous operaring system installation on multiple networked computers, or to distribute digitized streaming audio and video material. In the process, only one data instance is being sent from the server thus reducing the server load. Most of the "hard work" is being done by routers and swiches utilizing network protocols such as PIM, IGMP, MBGP, etc.
Multicast at UT
The University of Tennessee has been assigned the following IP multicast address space: 233.13.122.1 - 233.13.122.254. Customers wanting a multicast address need to send email to mcrequest@utk.edu requesting one. The following two forms may be used: