This book discusses the fundamental concepts that are essential to understanding IP multicast communication. The material covers the well-known IP multicast routing protocols, along with the rationale behind each protocol. The book starts with the basic building blocks of multicast communications and networks, then progresses into the common multicast group management methods used, and finally into the various, well-known multicast routing protocols used in today’s networks. IP multicast provides significant benefits to network operators by allowing the delivery of information to multiple receivers simultaneously with less network bandwidth consumption than using unicast transmission. Applications that can benefit greatly from multicast communications and multicast-enabled networks include audio and video conferencing, collaborative computing, online group learning and training, multimedia broadcasting, multi-participant online gaming, and stock market trading.

This book’s goal is to present the main concepts and applications, allowing readers to develop a better understanding of IP multicast communication. IP Multicast Routing Protocols: Concepts and Designs presents material from a practicing engineer’s perspective, linking theory and fundamental concepts to common industry practices and real-world examples.

The discussion is presented in a simple style to make it comprehensible and appealing to undergraduate- and graduate-level students, research and practicing engineers, scientists, IT personnel, and network engineers. It is geared toward readers who want to understand the concepts and theory of IP multicast routing protocols, yet want these to be tied to clearly illustrated and close-to-real-world example systems and networks.