broadcast
also: broadcast address, directed broadcast, limited broadcast
A network transmission sent to all devices on a local network segment simultaneously, rather than to a specific individual host. The broadcast address is the highest address on a subnet where all host bits are set to 1.
In networking, a broadcast is a special type of transmission where a single packet is sent to every device connected to the same network segment. This is useful for discovering devices, distributing information, or requesting services without knowing which specific hosts are present.
On an IPv4 network with subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and network address 192.168.1.0, the broadcast address is 192.168.1.255. When a packet is sent to this address, all devices on that subnet receive it. Common protocols like DHCP (device configuration) and ARP (address resolution) rely heavily on broadcasts.
Broadcasts are limited to the local network segment and do not cross router boundaries by default, which prevents broadcast storms from consuming bandwidth across the entire internet. You can view broadcast traffic with tools like tcpdump or configure broadcast behavior with ifconfig and routing tables.