ARP and RARP

Ejaz Ahmed

ARP and RARP

Objectives
Upon completion you will be able to:
Understand the need for ARP
Understand the cases in which ARP is used
Understand the need for RARP

ARP and RARP

Position of ARP and RARP in TCP/IP protocol suite

ARP
ARP associates an IP address with its physical address. On a
typical physical network, such as a LAN, each device on a
link is identified by a physical or station address that is
usually imprinted on the NIC.
The topics discussed in this section include:
Packet Format
Encapsulation
Operation
Proxy ARP

ARP Address Resolution Protocol

mapping from IP addresses to MAC addresses
Request
.1

08:00:20:03:F6:42
.2

.3

.4

00:00:C0:C2:9B:26
.5

140.252.13

Protocols and vulnerabilities

arp req | target IP: 140.252.13.5 | target eth: ?

Reply
.1

08:00:20:03:F6:42
.2

.3

.4

00:00:C0:C2:9B:26
.5

140.252.13
arp rep | sender IP: 140.252.13.5 | sender eth: 00:00:C0:C2:9B:26

ARP operation

ARP packet

Encapsulation of ARP packet

Four cases using ARP

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Note:
An ARP request is broadcast;
an ARP reply is unicast.

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Example

A host with IP address 130.23.43.20 and physical

address B2:34:55:10:22:10 has a packet to send to
another host with IP address 130.23.43.25 and
physical address A4:6E:F4:59:83:AB (which is
unknown to the first host). The two hosts are on the
same Ethernet network. Show the ARP request and
reply packets encapsulated in Ethernet frames.
See Next Slide

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Proxy ARP

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Gratuitous ARP

A host sends an ARP request to resolve its own IP address

In the ARP request packet, the source IP address and
destination IP address are filled with the same source IP
address itself. The destination MAC address is the Ethernet
broadcast address (FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF).
Gratuitous ARP is used for the following:

If another host in the network is configured with the same IP address

as the source host, then the source host will get an ARP reply. In this
way, a host can determine whether another host is also configured
with its IP address.
When the network interface card in a system is changed, the MAC
address to its IP address mapping is changed.

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Cache tables

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RARP
RARP finds the logical address for a machine that only
knows its physical address.

The topics discussed in this section include:

Packet Format
Encapsulation
RARP Server
Alternative Solutions to RARP

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Note:
The RARP request packets are broadcast;
the RARP reply packets are unicast.

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RARP operation

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RARP packet

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Encapsulation of RARP packet

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Reading Guidelines
Chapter 7: TCP/IP protocol Suite , Behrouz A. Forouzan
Chapter 5, 6: Internetworking with TCP/IP Principles, Protocols
and Architectures, Douglas E. Comer

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