Information Transmission In The Broadcast Mode - H3C S5600 Series Operation Manual

Operation Manual – Multicast
H3C S5600 Series Ethernet Switches
Figure 1-1 Information transmission in the unicast mode
Assume that Hosts B, D and E need this information. The source server establishes
transmission channels for the devices of these users respectively. As the transmitted
traffic over the network is in direct proportion to the number of users that receive this
information, when a large number of users need this information, the server must send
many pieces of information with the same content to the users. Therefore, the limited
bandwidth becomes the bottleneck in information transmission. This shows that unicast
is not good for the transmission of a great deal of information.

1.1.2 Information Transmission in the Broadcast Mode

When you adopt broadcast, the system transmits information to all users on a network.
Any user on the network can receive the information, no matter the information is
needed or not. Figure 1-2 shows information transmission in broadcast mode.
1-2
Chapter 1 Multicast Overview