3Com 4007, Implementation Manual, Page: 425 / 684

IP Multicast Overview 425
IP multicast group members can be scattered across multiple
subnetworks; thus, successful transmission from a source to group
members can occur within a campus LAN, a MAN, or over a WAN.
As an extension to the standard IP network-level protocol, IP multicast
was first defined in 1985 in RFC 966. Certain other protocols are used to
support IP multicast processes. These are explained later in this chapter.
Benefits of
IP Multicast
New applications that are designed to increase productivity within and
across organizations are driving the need for network infrastructures to
support IP multicast. When the application content is time-sensitive or
requires significant bandwidth (for example, a video stream), the IP
multicast process provides an efficient delivery mechanism.
The business benefits of using IP multicast are that it:
■
Enables the simultaneous delivery of information to many receivers in
the most efficient, logical way.
■
Vastly reduces the load on the source (for example, a server) because it
does not have to produce multiple copies of the same data.
■
Makes efficient use of network bandwidth and scales as the number
of participants or collaborators expands.
■
Works in concert with other protocols and services, such as Quality of
Service (QoS) and Resource Reservation (RSVP) requests to support
real-time multimedia.