IPv6 supports several communication modes depending on how traffic is delivered.

A packet is sent to a single destination identified by a unique IPv6 address.

A packet is sent to a group of devices simultaneously in a single transmission from the source.

A packet is delivered to the nearest or best destination among a group of potential recipients.

• Unicast: one-to-one
• Multicast: one-to-many
• Anycast: one-to-nearest

Anycast is commonly used in routing and content delivery scenarios where a sender communicates with the closest available server.