DES-3226S Layer 2 Fast Ethernet Switch User’s Guide
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Multicasting
Multicasting is a group of protocols and tools that enable a single source point to send packets to groups of multiple destination
points with persistent connections that last for some amount of time. The main advantage to multicasting is a decrease in the
network load compared to broadcasting.
Multicast Groups
Class D IP addresses are assigned to a group of network devices that comprise a multicast group. The four most
significant four bits of a Class D address are set to “1110”. The following 28 bits is referred to as the ‘multicast group ID’.
Some of the range of Class D addresses are registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for special
purposes. For example, the block of multicast addresses ranging from 224.0.0.1 to 224.0.0.225 is reserved for use by routing
protocols and some other low-level topology discovery and maintenance protocols.
Figure 5 - 7. Class D Multicast Address
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