Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Practice Exam

How many nodes can be identified by an IPv6 Multicast address?

1. A single node only

2. Multiple nodes

3. Any single node if routed correctly

4. Only the nearest node

The correct answer is: Multiple nodes

The correct choice is indeed the one indicating that an IPv6 Multicast address can identify multiple nodes. In IPv6, multicast is designed specifically to send packets to a group of interested receivers rather than a single destination. Each IPv6 multicast address maps to a particular group of interfaces, which may span multiple devices across different networks. When a packet is sent to a multicast address, it is delivered to all nodes that are part of that multicast group, allowing for efficient communication to many devices without the need to send a separate packet to each individual node. It is important to note that while a broadcast address in IPv4 would send packets to all devices on a local network, multicast in IPv6 operates on a group basis, enabling better utilization of bandwidth and reducing unnecessary traffic.