The following are the three different types of transmissions that can occur on an IPv6 network:
- Unicast: The unicast transmission type is where one host communicates with another host directly, such as a client and server, or what is better referred to as a peer-to-peer network. This is a one-to-one transmission.
- Multicast: In a multicast transmission, a single host communicates with many other hosts on the network, but not all. This reduces the traffic on the network by sending the message to only those who need it. The devices that participate in multicast transmissions are called a multicast group.
- Anycast: An IPv6 anycast address, which is a single IPv6 address, can be assigned to multiple devices. Whenever a packet is sent to the IPv6 anycast address, it is sent to the closest device that shares the anycast address.
