Broadcast
lastmod 2026-11-10created 2017-05-122 edits
Broadcast is a transmission method in which a single sender on a network sends data simultaneously to all hosts on the same network segment. It is distinguished from unicast, which specifies a single receiver, and multicast, which sends only to subscribed groups; in IPv4, the last address of the subnet or 255.255.255.255 is used as the destination. It is mainly used at stages where the other party's address is not yet known, such as ARP requests and DHCP discovery, and routers usually do not forward broadcasts to other networks.