Media Access Control Address (MAC Address)

1. Well, to communicate on the ethernet technology, we need an address known as MAC address.
2. Every device on the globe has its own globally unique MAC address.
3. It is a 48 bits hexadecimal address, one single character is of 4 bits.
4. MAC address is 6 bytes / 48 bits address.
5. It is also know as hardware address / physical address as it is burned in physically on the device itself.
6. It can be changed on a software level, but not on a hardware level.
7. Now, as a manufacturer, if you want to build a device which runs on ethernet technology, then you will need a globally unique MAC address and that will be provided to you by IEEE.
8. IEEE supplies the sets of MAC addresses to the customers.
9. If the manufacturer's limit of MAC address is utilized then the new set of codes can be bought from IEEE.

Organizationally unique identifier (OUI) -

These manufacturers all place a special number of sequence called OUI in the MAC address that identifies them as the manufacturer. The OUI is typically right at the front of the address.

So! This was the brief explanation about MAC address and OUI. See you in the next article!