Unicast, multicast, and broadcast addresses

In terms of end-to-end transmission, there's usually the following types of IP addresses:

  • A unicast IP address is an IP address that identifies a unique host on a network.
  • A multicast IP address is an IP address that is capable of sending packets to a selected group of hosts, known as a multicast group.
  • A broadcast IP address is an IP address that is capable of sending packets to all the hosts on a network.