Monday 17 October 2011

What is difference between logical address and physical address?

The OSI model is a good place to start to learn more about the differences between physical and logical addressing. Think of the physical address as the 48-bit MAC address that manufacturers encode in their network interface cards (NICs). This type of address is unique, referred to as the Ethernet or hardware address, and cannot be changed. The MAC or Ethernet address is associated with Layer 2 (data Link) of the OSI Model. The logical address is a 32-bit IP address that is not embedded in the network card but it is assigned to it for the purpose of routing between networks. This type of address operates at Layer 3 (network) of the OSI Model.

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