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Commonly confused · Networking Fundamentals

Unicast vs Multicast vs Broadcast: What's the Difference?

Unicast sends traffic from one sender to one receiver, multicast sends to a group of receivers that have opted in, and broadcast sends to every host in the local broadcast domain. IPv6 drops broadcast entirely and adds anycast.

vsvs
UnicastMulticastBroadcast
RecipientsOne specific hostHosts that joined a groupAll hosts in the broadcast domain
IPv4 addressesNormal host addresses224.0.0.0/4 (Class D)255.255.255.255 or subnet broadcast address
MAC destinationHost's MAC address01:00:5E prefix (IPv4)FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF
Crosses routersYesYes, with multicast routing (PIM)No, routers block it by default
Group managementNot applicableIGMP (IPv4) or MLD (IPv6)Not applicable
ExampleWeb browsingIPTV, routing protocol hellosARP request, DHCP Discover
Remember it

Unicast is a letter, multicast is a subscription, broadcast is a megaphone.

Exam tip

Questions often show an address and ask its type, or ask which traffic type IPv6 removed. ARP and DHCP Discover are the standard broadcast examples; OSPF hellos to 224.0.0.5 are a classic multicast example.

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