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Multicast support for Direct Sockets API

Category
Network / Connectivity
Type
New or changed feature
Status
Proposed (Chrome Proposed)
Intent stage
None

Summary

This feature allows [Isolated Web Apps](https://chromeos.dev/en/web/isolated-web-apps) (IWAs) to subscribe to multicast groups and receive User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets from there. IWAs can now also specify additional parameters when sending UDP packets to multicast addresses.

Motivation

1. Synchronous video stream from one device to the whole network of devices. For example, imagine in a shopping mall there would be multiple displays which show videos simultaneously on all devices. 2. Device discovery on a local network. mDNS protocol uses multicast sockets under the hood. In short, when a device joins a network, it sends a message: “Hello, I am headphones-10, my ip is ‘20.20.20.14’ . Who else is here?”, other devices reply and in such a manner all devices can know about each other without a central server.

Standards & signals

Docs: https://github.com/WICG/direct-sockets/blob/main/docs/multicast-explainer.md https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wna0lkTrhYoTxOO1GjOrut2nWHO19HEyo9YCk39tXqY/edit?usp=sharing

Explainers: https://github.com/explainers-by-googlers/Multicast-in-Direct-Sockets

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