Unicast Explained

thumb|Unicast is data transmission from a single sender (red) to a single receiver (green). Other devices on the network (yellow) do not participate in the communication.

In computer networking, unicast is a one-to-one transmission from one point in the network to another point; that is, one sender and one receiver, each identified by a network address.^[1]

Unicast is in contrast to multicast and broadcast which are one-to-many transmissions.^[2]

Internet Protocol unicast delivery methods such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) are typically used.

See also

• Anycast
• Broadcast, unknown-unicast and multicast traffic
• IP address
• IP multicast
• Routing

External links

• Web site: What Is Unicast IPv4 Routing?. Microsoft. 2010-09-30.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Godred Fairhurst. Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast. 2021-11-23. 2021-11-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20211123123211/https://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gorry/course/intro-pages/uni-b-mcast.html. dead.
2. Web site: Differences Between Multicast and Unicast. Microsoft. https://web.archive.org/web/20080203132015/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291786. 2008-02-03. dead. 2008-02-04.