Network Address Mapping

Address Mapping

An internet is made of a combination of physical networks connected by internetworking devices such as routers. A packet starting from a source host may pass through several different physical networks before finally reaching the destination host. The hosts and routers are recognized at the network level by their logical (IP) addresses. However, packets pass through physical networks to reach these hosts and routers. At the physical level, the hosts and routers are recognized by their physical addresses.

A physical address is a local address. Its jurisdiction is a local network. It must be unique locally, but is not necessarily unique universally. It is called a physical address because it is usually (but not always) implemented in hardware. An example of a physical address is the 48-bit MAC address in the Ethernet protocol, which is imprinted on the NIC installed in the host or router.

Limitations

1. A machine could change its NIC, resulting in a new physical address.

2.  In some LANs, such as LocalTalk, the physical address changes every time the computer is turned on.

3. A mobile computer can move from one physical network to another, resulting in a change in its physical address.

To implement these changes, a static mapping table must be updated periodically. This overhead could affect network performance. In dynamic mapping each time a machine knows one of the two addresses (logical or physical), it can use a protocol to find the other one.