Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
5. Broadcast Methods

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5. Broadcast Methods

5. Broadcast Methods

A host's IP receiving layer must be modified to support broadcasting. In the absence of broadcasting, a host determines if it is the recipient of a datagram by matching the destination address against all of its IP addresses. With broadcasting, a host must compare the destination address not only against the host's addresses, but also against the possible broadcast addresses for that host.

The problem of how best to send a broadcast has been extensively discussed [1, 3, 4, 14, 15]. Since we assume that the problem has already been solved at the data link layer, an IP host wishing to send either a local broadcast or a directed broadcast need only specify the appropriate destination address and send the datagram as usual. Any sophisticated algorithms need only reside in gateways.


Next: 6. Gateways and Broadcasts

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
5. Broadcast Methods