1. 单播：
单播是一种信息传输，当有单个发送者和单个接收者参与时使用它。因此，简而言之，您可以将其称为一对一映射。例如，网络中 IP 地址为 10.1.4.0 的设备想要将流量(数据包)发送到另一个网络中 IP 地址为 20.14.4.2 的设备，然后单播就出现了。它是最常见的网络数据传输形式。
2. 多播：
多播有一个/多个发送者和一个/多个接收者参与数据传输流量。在多播中，流量在单播和广播的边界之间倾斜。它服务于数据流的直接单一副本，然后模拟并路由到请求它的主机。 IP 多播需要支持其他一些协议，例如 Internet 组管理协议 (IGMP)、多播路由才能工作。并且在有类 IP 寻址中，D 类是为多播组保留的。
单播和多播的区别：
| S.No. | Unicast | Multicast |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | It has one sender and one receiver. | It has one or more senders and multiple receivers. |
| 2. | It sends data from one device to single device. | It sent data from one device to multiple devices. |
| 3. | It works on Single Node Topology. | It works on star, mesh, tree and hybrid topology. |
| 4. | It does not scale well for streaming media. | It does not scale well across large networks. |
| 5. | Multiple unicasting utilizes more bandwidth as compared. | It utilizes bandwidth efficiently. |
| 6. | Web surfing, file transfer is an example of a unicast. | Switch is an example of a multicast device. |
| 7. | It has one-to-one mapping. | It has one-to-many mapping. |