What Does Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM) Mean?

Protocol-independent multicast is a family of protocols looking after the different modes of internet multicasting for successful transmission of information in one to many, and many to many modes. All protocol-independent multicast protocols have a similar format for control message. Using the routing information available with the help of the different communication protocols, protocol-independent multicast can function without being dependent on any specific routing protocol. In other words, protocol-independent multicast does not use its own mechanism of topology discovery.

Techopedia Explains Protocol-Independent Multicast (PIM)

There are four modes in protocol-independent multicast, namely: