Multicast - Example Use Cases

Multicast is a useful technology that is ideal for network traffic that has a single source and multiple destinations. Some of the most common uses for multicast include:

  • Video Streaming/IPTV which delivers television content over an IP network rather than through traditional cable or satellite formats. For example: Audio and Video over IP Networks
  • Videoconferencing with multiple participants, where your audio/video stream is sent to multiple participants of the VC
  • Online Gaming, where online multiplayer games use multicast to send the same information (like game state updates) to many players at once.
  • Software Distribution: Multicast can be used for the distribution of software updates to multiple systems at the same time, which can save significant bandwidth when compared to unicast distribution.
  • Financial Trading: In financial markets, multicast is used to distribute price and trade information to multiple trading systems simultaneously.
  • Network Protocols: Network protocols like OSPF, EIGRP, and RIP use multicast to distribute routing information to all routers in a network.
  • Various voice services including Music on Hold (MoH) and audio announcements, and 3-way calling will typically use multicast.

https://networklessons.com/multicast/introduction-to-multicast/