MAC can be classified as:

• Unicast mac address
• Multicast mac address and
• Broadcast mac address

Unicast mac address:

• Any frame with unicast address is send sent out to the interface leading to specific NIC.
• It is one to to one communication.
• If the LSB of the first octet is set to 0, means it is Unicast mac address and frame is meant to reach one specific NIC.

Multicast Mac address:

• It allows the source ti send frame to group of devices.
• If the LSB of first octet is set 1, means it is multicast mac address and frame is meant to reach multiple NIC cards.

Broadcast Mac Address:

• Ethernet frames with ones in all bits of the destination address (FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF) are referred as broadcast address.
• Frames which are destined with MAC address FF-FF-FF-FF-FF-FF will reach to every computer belong to that LAN segment.

Categories: Networking