| Broadcasting (networks) |
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that will be received (conceptionally) by every device on the network. In practice, the scope of the broadcast is limited to a Broadcast Domain . Contrast Unicast ing and Multicasting . Not all computer networks support broadcasting; for example, neither X.25 nor Frame Relay supply a broadcast capability, nor is there any form of Internet-wide broadcast. Broadcasting is largely confined to Local Area Network (LAN) technologies, most notably Ethernet and Token Ring , where the performance impact of broadcasting is not as large as it would be in a Wide Area Network . Both Ethernet and IPv4 use an all-ones Broadcast Address to indicate a broadcast packet. Token Ring uses a special value in the IEEE 802.2 control field. Due to its "shotgun" approach to data distribution, broadcasting is being increasingly supplanted by Multicasting . For example, IPv6 supports neither directed broadcasts nor local broadcasts. |