What type of address is used by HSRP for communication?

Hot Standby Router Protocol (HSRP) utilizes multicast addresses for its communication, which is why this answer is correct. Specifically, HSRP routers communicate with each other using the well-known multicast address 224.0.0.2, which targets all routers on the local segment. This allows HSRP routers to make decisions based on the state of the active router and participate in the election of the active router.

The use of multicast facilitates the efficient communication of status updates and messages between routers in the HSRP group without requiring a dedicated unicast session for each router. This method conserves bandwidth and enables dynamic failover and load sharing among routers.

In contrast, unicast addresses would require direct communication between specific pairs of routers, leading to a lack of scalability and increased overhead. Broadband and anycast addresses do not apply in this context, as they are not part of the HSRP communication mechanism.