Unicast

Short description: Sending a message to one computer; on a one-to-one basis

thumb|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.

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.

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

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

See also

• Anycast
• Broadcast, unknown-unicast and multicast traffic
• IP address
• IP multicast
• Routing

External links

• "Differences Between Multicast and Unicast". Microsoft. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291786. 
• "What Is Unicast IPv4 Routing?". Microsoft. https://technet.microsoft.com/de-de/library/cc736574%28WS.10%29.aspx.