Definition

 

Definition Our Definition Sources and Online Definitions Web-o-pedia Smart Computing

 

Our Definition   A MAC Address, or Media Access Control address, is a unique way of identifying a network, and each type of network device has its own MAC layer.  There are 281 trillion possible MAC addresses and these are used so computers and network devices use these addresses to communicate with each other.

 

Sources and Online Definitions

 

Web-o-pedia

" Short for Media Access Control address, a hardware address that uniquely identifies each node of a network. In IEEE 802 networks, the Data Link Control (DLC) layer of the OSI Reference Model is divided into two sublayers: the Logical Link Control (LLC) layer and the Media Access Control (MAC) layer. The MAC layer interfaces directly with the network medium. Consequently, each different type of network medium requires a different MAC layer.

On networks that do not conform to the IEEE 802 standards but do conform to the OSI Reference Model, the node address is called the Data Link Control (DLC) address."

 

 

Smart Computing

 

"One way to think of a MAC address is as a sort of serial number for your computer’s network card or interface. When a company builds a wireless NIC (network interface card), it encodes a unique MAC address into the firmware of the card.

 

MAC addresses are written in hexadecimal notation, and there are over 281 trillion possible addresses. Most implementations denote the MAC address in six groups of two hexadecimal digits, such as this: 00-03-FF-D4-69-24.

 

MAC addresses are used so that network devices know how to communicate. When a computer on a network wants to communicate with another computer or network device, it needs to determine the MAC (sometimes referred to as the hardware address) of the recipient device."

 

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