In multicast networks, where a single source disseminates information to multiple destinations concurrently, network coding can significantly improve reliability and bandwidth utilisation.

However, some network configurations with multiple routers or switches may require an accompanying IGMP querier to function correctly, without blocking all multicast traffic.

Routing IP multicast packets makes unicast routing – getting a unicast packet from its source to its destination, across a constantly changing landscape of interconnected networks – look like ...