MAC addresses are formed according to the principles of two numbering spaces based on extended unique identifiers (EUIs) managed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE): EUI-48-which replaces the obsolete term MAC-48-and EUI-64. The address typically includes a manufacturer's organizationally unique identifier (OUI). Many network interfaces, however, support changing their MAC address. Each address can be stored in hardware, such as the card's read-only memory, or by a firmware mechanism.

MAC addresses are primarily assigned by device manufacturers, and are therefore often referred to as the burned-in address, or as an Ethernet hardware address, hardware address, or physical address. As typically represented, MAC addresses are recognizable as six groups of two hexadecimal digits, separated by hyphens, colons, or without a separator. Within the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) network model, MAC addresses are used in the medium access control protocol sublayer of the data link layer. This use is common in most IEEE 802 networking technologies, including Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. Label of a UMTS router with MAC addresses for LAN and WLAN modulesĪ media access control address ( MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment.

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