ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Narada multicast protocol

Hi there! Do you know how when you send a message or a letter to someone, you have to write their name and address on it first? And then the mail carrier takes it and delivers it to that person?

Well, sending a message or data over the internet also involves some similar process. And sometimes we want to send the same message to multiple people or devices at the same time, just like when you write a letter to your friends and send a copy of it to each of them.

When we want to send the same message or data to multiple devices or computers over the internet, we use a protocol called the Narada Multicast Protocol. It works like a messenger, who can deliver the same message to many people at the same time.

You can think of it like this: when you want to send a message to your friends, you can either send a separate message to each of them (which is called unicast), or you can send one message that will be sent to all of them at the same time (which is called multicast). Narada Multicast Protocol helps you do the latter.

But how does it work? Imagine you have a group of friends who all live in the same street. You can ask your messenger to deliver the message to everyone on that street. The messenger will just walk down the street and deliver the message to every house. That's pretty easy, right?

Now imagine your friends are not on the same street, but they are scattered across different streets in the city. You can still use the same messenger to deliver the message, but this time the messenger will have to visit each street separately and deliver the message to each friend. That's a bit more complicated, but still doable.

Similarly, the Narada Multicast Protocol uses a network of servers and routers to deliver the same message to multiple devices or computers that are connected to the internet. These devices can be anywhere in the world, and the protocol will ensure that the message is delivered to all of them, without any delay or loss of data.

So, in short, the Narada Multicast Protocol is a way of sending the same message or data to multiple devices or computers at the same time, using a network of servers and routers that work like messengers. It helps save time and bandwidth, and ensures that the message is delivered without any errors or delays.