peercasting

Peercasting is the multiple transmission of data streams to different peers. The data streams are usually audio and video transmitted over the Internet.

With peercasting, unlike IP multicast, the data streams can be accessed. Peercasting uses peer-to-peer networks as overlay networks and routes the data streams from peer to peer. The connections between peers are negotiated over an overlay network. Alternatively, the data streams can also be broken down into the smallest segments and distributed by a program such as BitTorrent. With this method, high transfer rates can be achieved and many users can be reached at the same time. This is due to the fact that in peer-to-peer networks, computers provide each other with resources such as bandwidth.