Suppose we send an Ethernet frame from our pc on a LAN to another pc. A data link such as an Ethernet or a token ring has its own addressing scheme which is often 48-bit addresses. Information is sent using IP addresses which is 32-bit address. Address Resolution Protocol provides a mapping between two different forms of addresses: 32-bit IP addresses and whatever type of address the data link uses (here 48-bit ethernet address). This logical address to physical address mapping is done by ARP.
ARP does dynamic mapping of addresses. That is, it is neither a concern of the application user or the system administrator to configure anything when this mapping takes place. All work is done automatically.
Saturday, 14 March 2015
Address Resolution Protocol
