!!! Overview[1]
[{$pagename}] (one-to-many or many-to-many or one-to-all distribution) is group communication where information is addressed to a group of destination computers simultaneously. 

[{$pagename}] communication may either be [Application Layer] [{$pagename}] or [network] assisted [{$pagename}], where the latter makes it possible for the source to efficiently send to the group in a single transmission. Copies are automatically created in other network elements, such as routers, switches and cellular [network] base stations, but only to [network] segments that currently contain members of the group.

[Network] assisted [{$pagename}] may be implemented at the [Data-link Layer] using one-to-many addressing and switching such as [Ethernet] [{$pagename}] addressing, [Asynchronous Transfer Mode] ([ATM]) point-to-multipoint virtual circuits (P2MP) or Infiniband multicast. [Network] assisted [{$pagename}] may also be implemented at the Internet layer using [IP] [{$pagename}]. In [IP] multicast the implementation of the [{$pagename}] concept occurs at the [IP] routing level, where routers create optimal distribution paths for datagrams sent to a multicast destination address.

!! More Information
There might be more information for this subject on one of the following:
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* [#1] - [Multicast|Wikipedia:Multicast|target='_blank'] - based on information obtained 2017-01-20-