What is Broadcasting in Computer Network?


Broadcasting in computer network is a group communication, where a sender sends data to receivers simultaneously. This is an all − to − all communication model where each sending device transmits data to all other devices in the network domain.

The ways of operation of broadcasting may be −

  • A high level operation in a program, like broadcasting in Message Passing Interface.

  • A low level networking operation, like broadcasting on Ethernet.

Broadcasting is shown in the following figure −

Advantages of Broadcasting

Broadcast helps to attain economies of scale when a common data stream needs to be delivered to all, by minimizing the communication and processing overhead. It ensures better utilization of resources and faster delivery in comparison to several unicast communication.

Disadvantages of Broadcasting

Broadcasting cannot accommodate a very large amount of devices. Also it does not allow personalisation of the messages according to the individual preferences of the devices.

Updated on: 30-Jul-2019

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