ARP-RARP

1
 ARP
(Address Resolution Protocol)

2
 Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
 At the physical layer, all hosts are identified by MAC
address.

 A MAC address is a local address and unique locally.

Hence it is needed to map IP address into a
corresponding MAC address.

 ARP is the standard method for finding a host's

hardware address (MAC Address) when only its
network layer address (IP Address) is known. Such a
mapping is of two types: Static and dynamic mapping.

3
 ARP
 Static mapping
 A table is created and stored in each machine.
 If a machine knows the IP address of another machine
then it can search for the corresponding MAC address in
its table.
 It is necessary that static mapping tables need to be
updated periodically.

 Dynamic mapping
 A protocol is used for finding the other address when
one type of address is known.
 ARP maps the IP address to a MAC address and RARP
(Reverse ARP) maps MAC address to an IP address. 4
ARP Header Format

5
 ARP Operation
1. The sender knows the IP address of the target. ARP
request message is send which consists of sender’s
physical and logical addresses and logical address of
the target.

2. The ARP request packet is send to the data link layer.

Here it is encapsulated with Ethernet frame.

3. Every router or hosts receives this frame because it is

broadcast. All machines except the target drop this
packet.
6
 ARP Operation
4. The target replies back with an ARP reply packet
which contains target’s physical address. This reply is
Unicast.

5. The sender receives the reply packet and thus receives

target’s physical address.

7
ARP Operation

8
 RARP
(Reverse Address Resolution Protocol)

9
 RARP
 The RARP allows a host to discover its IP address
when it knows only its physical address.

 It is used when a computer is connected to the

network for the first time or when a diskless
computer is booted.

10