Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 18, 2026

Unicast

In computer networking, unicast is a one-to-one transmission from one point in the network to another point; that is, one sender and one receiver, each identified by a network address.

Last revised
Jun 18, 2026
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≈ 1 min
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Wikipedia ↗
Unicast is data transmission from a single sender (red) to a single receiver (green). Other devices on the network (yellow) do not participate in the communication. source ↗
Routing schemes
Unicast
Broadcast
Multicast
Anycast

In computer networking, unicast is a one-to-one transmission from one point in the network to another point; that is, one sender and one receiver, each identified by a network address.1

Unicast is in contrast to multicast and broadcast which are one-to-many transmissions.2

Internet Protocol unicast delivery methods such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) are typically used.

See also

See also

References

References

  1. Godred Fairhurst. "Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast". Archived from the original on 2021-11-23. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  2. "Differences Between Multicast and Unicast". Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2008-02-03. Retrieved 2008-02-04.
External links