Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)

RARP

Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) finds the logical address for a machine that knows only its physical address. Each host or router is assigned one or more logical (IP) addresses, which are unique and independent of the physical (hardware) address of the machine. To create an IP datagram, a host or a router needs to know its own IP address or addresses. The IP address of a machine is usually read from its configuration file stored on a disk file.

However, a diskless machine is usually booted from ROM, which has minimum booting information. The ROM is installed by the manufacturer. It cannot include the IP address because the IP addresses on a network are assigned by the network administrator.

The machine can get its physical address (by reading its NIC, for example), which is unique locally. It can then use the physical address to get the logical address by using the RARP protocol. A RARP request is created and broadcast on the local network. Another machine on the local network that knows all the IP addresses will respond with a RARP reply. The requesting machine must be running a RARP client program; the responding machine must be running a RARP server program.

There is a serious problem with RARP: Broadcasting is done at the data link layer. The physical broadcast address, all is in the case of Ethernet, does not pass the boundaries of a network. This means that if an administrator has several networks or several subnets, it needs to assign a RARP server for each network or subnet. This is the reason that RARP is almost obsolete. Two protocols, BOOTP and DHCP, are replacing RARP