Why does Ethernet use physical addresses?

The reason why Ethernet uses physical addresses is to uniquely identify a device on the second layer; Ethernet is a computer LAN technology; the IEEE802.3 standard of the IEEE organization formulates the technical standard of Ethernet, which stipulates Including physical layer wiring, electronic signals and media access layer protocol content.

The operating environment of this article: Windows7 system, DELL G3 computer

What is the reason why Ethernet uses physical addresses?

The reason why Ethernet uses physical addresses is to uniquely identify one device on the second layer.

Ethernet is a computer local area network technology. The IEEE 802.3 standard of the IEEE organization formulates the technical standard of Ethernet, which specifies the content including physical layer wiring, electronic signals and media access layer protocols. Ethernet is currently the most commonly used LAN technology, replacing other LAN technologies such as Token Ring, FDDI and ARCNET.

Ethernet is the most common computer network in the real world. There are two types of Ethernet: the first is classic Ethernet, and the second is switched Ethernet, which uses a device called a switch to connect different computers. Classic Ethernet is the original form of Ethernet, operating at speeds ranging from 3 to 10 Mbps; Switched Ethernet is a widely used Ethernet that can run at high rates of 100, 1000 and 10000 Mbps, respectively, with Fast Ethernet Network, Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet.

The standard topology of Ethernet is a bus topology, but the current Fast Ethernet (100BASE-T, 1000BASE-T standards) uses Switches for network connectivity and organization. As a result, the topology of Ethernet becomes a star; but logically, Ethernet still uses bus topology and CSMA/CD (Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection). bus technology.

Ethernet realizes the idea of ​​multiple nodes of a radio system on the network sending information. Each node must obtain a cable or channel to transmit information, sometimes also called Ether. (The name comes from the electromagnetic radiation medium hypothesized by 19th-century physicists - optical ether. Later research proved that optical ether does not exist.) Each node has a globally unique 48-bit address, which is the MAC address assigned to the network card by the manufacturer. , to ensure that all nodes on the Ethernet can identify each other. Because Ethernet is so common, many manufacturers integrate Ethernet cards directly into computer motherboards.

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