MAC and IP Address

Fundamentals
Introduction to MAC Address
MAC Address
• A media access control address (MAC address) of a device is a unique identifier assigned to network
interfaces for communications

• It allows a device to be able to individual identify itself within a group of devices and only then can it
receive or send signals.

• MAC addresses are most often assigned by the manufacturer of a network interface controller (NIC) and
are stored in its hardware, such as the card's read-only memory or some other firmware mechanism.

• MAC addresses are formed according to the rules of name spaces managed by the Institute of Electrical
and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Ethernet MAC Addresses
MAC Addresses and Hexadecimal
• An Ethernet MAC address is a 48-bit binary value
expressed as 12 hexadecimal digits (4 bits per hexadecimal
digit).

• Hexadecimal is used to represent Ethernet MAC addresses

and IP Version 6 addresses.
– Hexadecimal is a base sixteen system using the numbers 0 to
9 and the letters A to F.
– It is easier to express a value as a single hexadecimal digit
than as four binary bits.
– Hexadecimal is usually represented in text by the value
preceded by 0x (E.g., 0x73).

• Convert the decimal or hexadecimal value to binary, and

then to convert the binary value to either decimal or
hexadecimal as needed.
Ethernet MAC Addresses
MAC Addresses: Ethernet Identity
• MAC addresses were created to identify the actual
source and destination.
– The MAC address rules are established by
IEEE.
– The IEEE assigns the vendor a 3-byte (24-bit)
code, called the Organizationally Unique
Identifier (OUI).

• IEEE requires a vendor to follow two simple rules:

– All MAC addresses assigned to a NIC or other
Ethernet device must use that vendor's
assigned OUI as the first 3 bytes.
– All MAC addresses with the same OUI must
be assigned a unique value in the last 3 bytes.
Ethernet MAC Addresses
Frame Processing
• The MAC address is often referred to as
a burned-in address (BIA) meaning the
address is encoded into the ROM chip
permanently.

• When the computer starts up, the first

thing the NIC does is copy the MAC
address from ROM into RAM.

• When a device is forwarding a message

to an Ethernet network, it attaches
header information to the frame.

• The header information contains the

source and destination MAC address.
Ethernet MAC Addresses
MAC Address Representations
• Use the ipconfig /all command on a
Windows host to identify the MAC
address of an Ethernet adapter.

• On a MAC or Linux host, the ifconfig

command is used.

• Depending on the device and the

operating system, you will see various
representations of MAC addresses.
Ethernet MAC Addresses
Unicast MAC Address
• A unicast MAC address is the unique
address used when a frame is sent
from a single transmitting device to
a single destination device.

• For a unicast packet to be sent and

received, a destination IP address
must be in the IP packet header and
a corresponding destination MAC
address must also be present in the
Ethernet frame header.
Ethernet MAC Addresses
Broadcast MAC Address
• Many network protocols, such as
DHCP and ARP, use broadcasts.
• A broadcast packet contains a
destination IPv4 address that has all
ones (1s) in the host portion
indicating that all hosts on that local
network will receive and process the
packet.
• When the IPv4 broadcast packet is
encapsulated in the Ethernet frame,
the destination MAC address is the
broadcast MAC address of FF-FF-FF-
FF-FF-FF in hexadecimal (48 ones in
binary).
Ethernet MAC Addresses
Multicast MAC Address
• Multicast addresses allow a
source device to send a packet to
a group of devices.
– Devices in a multicast group are
assigned a multicast group IP
address in the range of
224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255
(IPv6 multicast addresses begin
with FF00::/8).
– The multicast IP address
requires a corresponding
multicast MAC address that
begins with 01-00-5E in
hexadecimal.
Introduction to IP Addressing
Binary and Decimal Conversion
IPv4 Addresses
• IPv4 addresses are
expressed in 32 binary bits
divided into 4 8-bit octets.

• Also known as logical

address
Binary and Decimal Conversion
IPv4 Addresses (Cont.)
• IPv4 addresses are commonly expressed in dotted decimal notation
IPv4 Address Structure
Network and Host Portions
• An IPv4 address is hierarchical.
– Composed of a Network portion and Host portion.

• All devices on the same network must have the identical network portion.

• The Subnet Mask helps devices identify the network portion and host portion.
Subnet Mask
• A subnet (short for "subnetwork") is separate part of an organization's network. Typically, a subnet may
represent all the machines at one geographic location, in one building, or on the same local area
network (LAN).

• When we set an IP address its Subnet Mask is auto set by the OS.

• Subnet mask is a mask used to determine what subnet an IP address belongs to.

• Subnet will separate the Network ID octets and the Host ID octets of the address

• It will also determine the maximum no. of Hosts that can be connected to the network
IPv4 Address Structure
The Subnet Mask
• Three IPv4 addresses must be configured on a
host:
– Unique IPv4 address of the host.
– Subnet mask - identifies the network/host
portion of the IPv4 address.
– Default gateway -IP address of the local
router interface.
IPv4 Address Structure
The Subnet Mask (Cont.)
• The IPv4 address is compared to the subnet mask bit by bit, from left to right.

• A 1 in the subnet mask indicates that the corresponding bit in the IPv4 address is a network bit.
IPv4 Address Structure
The Prefix Length
▪ The Prefix Length:
• Shorthand method of
expressing the subnet
mask.
• Equals the number of
bits in the subnet mask
set to 1.
• Written in slash
notation, / followed by
the number of network
bits.
IPv4 Address Structure
Logical AND
▪ A logical AND is one of three basic
binary operations used in digital logic.
▪ Used to determine the Network
Address
▪ The Logical AND of two bits yields the
following results:
IPv4 Address Structure
Network, Host, and Broadcast Addresses
▪ Types of Addresses in Network 192.168.10.0/24
• Network Address - host portion is all 0s
(.00000000)
• First Host address - host portion is all 0s and ends
with a 1 (.00000001)
• Last Host address - host portion is all 1s and ends
with a 0 (.11111110)
• Broadcast Address - host portion is all 1s
(.11111111)
IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Static IPv4 Address Assignment to a Host
▪ Some devices like printers, servers and
network devices require a fixed IP
address.
▪ Hosts in a small network can also be
configured with static addresses.
IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Dynamic IPv4 Address Assignment to a Host
▪ Most networks use Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP) to assign IPv4 addresses
dynamically.
▪ The DHCP server provides an IPv4 address, subnet
mask, default gateway, and other configuration
information.
▪ DHCP leases the addresses to hosts for a certain
length of time.
▪ If the host is powered down or taken off the
network, the address is returned to the pool for
reuse.
IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
IPv4 Communication

▪ Unicast – one to one ▪ Broadcast– one to all. ▪ Multicast – one to a

communication. select group.
IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Unicast Transmission
▪ Unicast – one to one
communication.
• Use the address of the
destination device as the
destination address.
IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Broadcast Transmission

▪ Broadcast– one to all

• Message sent to everyone in the LAN
(broadcast domain.)
• destination IPv4 address has all ones
(1s) in the host portion.
IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Multicast Transmission

▪ Multicast– one to a select group.

• 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255 addresses
reserved for multicast.
• routing protocols use multicast
transmission to exchange routing
information.
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Special User IPv4 Addresses
• Loopback addresses (127.0.0.0 /8 or 127.0.0.1)
– Used on a host to test if the TCP/IP configuration is operational.

• Link-Local addresses (169.254.0.0 /16 or 169.254.0.1)

– Commonly known as Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) addresses.
– Used by Windows client to self configure if no DHCP server available.
• TEST-NET addresses (192.0.2.0/24 or 192.0.2.0 to 192.0.2.255)
– Used for teaching and learning.
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Legacy Classful Addressing
• In 1981, Internet IPv4 addresses were assigned using classful addressing (RFC 790)
• Network addresses were based on 3 classes:
– Class A (0.0.0.0/8 to 127.0.0.0/8) – Designed to support extremely large networks with more
than 16 million host addresses.
– Class B (128.0.0.0 /16 – 191.255.0.0 /16) – Designed to support the needs of moderate
to large size networks up to approximately 65,000 host addresses.
– Class C (192.0.0.0 /24 – 223.255.255.0 /24) – Designed to support small networks with
a maximum of 254 hosts.
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Legacy Classful Addressing
• There are 5 classes of IP address
❑ Class A, B, C, D and E

• Class A, B, and C are used in networking

• Class D is used for Multicast

• Class E is reserved for Research

• The Class of IP is identified by the value given in the

First Octet

• The following values can be given within an Octet

– 1st Octet – 1 to 223
– 2nd, 3rd and 4th – 0 to 255
IP Addressing scheme
CLASS First octet Network ID Host ID octets No. of Hosts
range octets
A 1 - 126 1ST OCTET ONLY 2ND,3RD & 4TH OCTETS 16,777,214

B 128 - 191 1ST AND 2ND OCTETS 3RD & 4TH OCTETS 65,534

C 192 - 223 1ST, 2ND & 3RD OCTETS 4TH OCTET ONLY 254

D 224 - 239 NA NA NA

E 240 - 254 NA NA NA
Default Subnet Mask
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Classless Addressing
• Classful Addressing wasted addresses and exhausted the availability of IPv4 addresses.
• Classless Addressing Introduced in the 1990s
– Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR, pronounced “cider”)
– Allowed service providers to allocate IPv4 addresses on any address bit boundary (prefix
length) instead of only by a class A, B, or C.
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Classless Addressing
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Public and Private IPv4 Addresses
• Private Addresses
– Not routable
– Introduced in mid 1990s due to depletion of IPv4
addresses
– Used only in internal networks.
– Must be translated to a public IPv4 to be routable.
– Defined by RFC 1918

• Private Address Blocks

– 10.0.0.0 /8 or 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255
– 172.16.0.0 /12 or 172.16.0.0 to
172.31.255.255192.168.0.0 /16
– 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255
Private IP & Public IP
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Assignment of IP Addresses
• The following organizations manage and maintain IPv4 and IPv6 addresses for the
various regions.
– American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)- North America.
– Réseaux IP Europeans (RIPE) - Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia
– Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) - Asia and Pacific regions
– African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) – Africa
– Regional Latin-American and Caribbean IP Address Registry (LACNIC) - Latin America and some
Caribbean islands
Types of IPv4 Addresses
Assignment of IP Addresses