Media Access Control Address

MAC (Media Access Control) Address is a hardware address that is embeddred in the NIC. It is also known ad hardware or physical address. Every NIC has a unique MAC address assigned by IEEE. The MAC address operates at the data link layer of the OSI Model.

        MAC Address is a 12 digit Hexadecimal number (48 bit address). The MAC address is made up of numbers from 0-9 or a letter from A-F.

      The MAC Address is divided in two parts.The first part of the address gives information about the adapter manufacture. It represents the ID number of the manufacture. This ID is provided to the manufactures by IEEE. The second half of the MAC address represents a serial number for that NIC provided by the manufacturer. 

                                           FRAME STRUCTURE OF MAC