This book explains how to send IP data packets from one source to multiple receivers. You will discover how multicasting (one-to-many or many-to-many) can dramatically increase the efficiency of a network compared to unicasting (one-to-one) or broadcasting (one-to-all) transmission. Multicasting is critical for mass media streaming sources such as IP television and Internet radio. Without the use of multicasting, a 3 Mbps television streaming service would require data connections of 30 Gbps to provide service to 10,000 customers. This book explains the fundamentals of how multicasting systems operate including how members find, join and disconnect from multicast sessions. You will learn about addressing along with multicast member and group manageme...