What does anycast addressing do?

• A. Delivers to the closest member of a group
• B. Delivers to a specific one-to-one endpoint
• C. Delivers to a random member
• D. Delivers to all members of a group

Answer: (A)

Anycast addressing is a way for several servers to share the same IP address, with routers directing traffic to the nearest available instance that advertises that address. The key idea is that the destination is not a single fixed server, but whichever member is closest in network distance or routing metric. This makes the service respond quickly and helps with load balancing and resilience; if one site is slow or down, another nearby site can handle requests.

So, the packet isn’t aimed at a specific one-to-one endpoint like unicast would; it isn’t chosen at random—the routing decisions are based on network topology and metrics to pick the closest member. It also isn’t delivered to all members, which would resemble multicast or broadcast.