Classes in this package implement distribution in GemFire. Every virtual machine working with distributed data (client VMs, the GemFire console) has an instance of {@link org.apache.geode.distributed.internal.DistributionManager} that is responsible for sending and receiving {@link org.apache.geode.distributed.internal.DistributionMessage}s. A `DistributionManager` has a unique {@link org.apache.geode.distributed.internal.DistributionManager#getId id} and uses a MembershipManager to discover the other members of the distributed system. It also uses the MembershipManager to detect when a member has left the group. While some messages may be broadcast to all members of the group, the vast majority of messages are only intended for a subset of the group are sent point-to-point.