What is the difference between physical address and logical address?

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Answered by: kalyan raghavan

  • Jan 23rd, 2006

A Physical address is a 48-bit flat address burned into the ROM of the NIC card which is a Layer1 device of the OSI model. This iis divided into 24-bit vendor code and 24-bit serial address. This is unique for each system and cannot be changed.

A Logical address is a 32- bit address assigned to each system in a network. This works in Layer-3 of OSI Model. This would be generally the IP address.

Showing Answers 1 - 18 of 18 Answers

sandeepcheema007

  • Dec 20th, 2005
 

Obtaining a physical address that is ultimately needed to perform an operation. All instructions executing at the machine level require a physical memory, storage or network node address when referencing the actual hardware. Machine addresses are derived using table lookups and/or algorithms.In a network, a "where is?" request is broadcast onto the network, and the logical address (name) is turned into a physical address (machine number), either by the recipient node or by a router that maintains a list of address translations.This is through ARP.

Sunil

  • Dec 22nd, 2005
 

Physical Addres: It Is a physical address that we can't change,It is present in NIC Card,Given by INTERNIC Organization.

Logical Address: It Can be changed as you like,used for assigning a ip address to clients.

kalyan raghavan

  • Jan 23rd, 2006
 

A Physical address is a 48-bit flat address burned into the ROM of the NIC card which is a Layer1 device of the OSI model. This iis divided into 24-bit vendor code and 24-bit serial address. This is unique for each system and cannot be changed.

A Logical address is a 32- bit address assigned to each system in a network. This works in Layer-3 of OSI Model. This would be generally the IP address.

sanjay

  • Feb 15th, 2006
 

physical address is MAC address of nic and logical address is ip address.

vaisnave

  • May 22nd, 2006
 

pysical address is used in main memory.

logical address is used in virtual memory.

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ezgiamen kahsu

  • Sep 12th, 2006
 

the difference between physical and logical address

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Amol Bawane

  • Nov 6th, 2007
 

Physical Address is nothing but your actual real address like MAC.for that Storage device should be required.Physical Address can't never change,It is present in NIC Card.Logical Address is noting but ur IP address which is used to create client.It will change whenever change required.

Thanks
Amol Bawane.

giri_adepu

  • Jun 2nd, 2008
 

logical address of yhe any nic card is ip address of the sysytem.in any copmany lan or wan environment for machine to mechine communication each and every mechine required one nomber.thats why ina peoples desizned and interduces one good technologie is ip addressing system.

phisical address of any copmany nic card is also known as a mac address {media accec controler address} mac address mediater bitween cable and mechine. it means mac address main function is transfer the data cable laguage to mechine language anad mechine language to cable language.its a 48 bit address

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radhesham

  • Jun 21st, 2011
 

A Physical address is a 48-bit flat address burned into the ROM of the NIC card which is a Layer1 device of the OSI model. This is divided into 24-bit vendor code and 24-bit serial address. This is unique for each system and cannot be changed.

A Logical address is a 32- bit address assigned to each system in a network. This works in Layer-3 of OSI Model. This would be generally the IP address.

Simply we can say that Physical address is MAC address (Media Access Control) which inbuilt and Logical Address is the IP which is given manually

Pruthwiraj Jagadale

  • Aug 8th, 2011
 

physical address is sometimes a synonym of MAC address. The address is actually used on the network's data link layer

a logical address is the address at which an item (memory cell, storage element, network host) appears to reside from the perspective of an executing application program.

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Thierry

  • Sep 2nd, 2011
 

The Physical address is the MAC address the logical is the IP address.

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Abhilash

  • Sep 2nd, 2015
 

The physical and logical address are two different address used when data is transmitted from one network to another.

The physical address is the MAC address while Logical address is IP address. MAC address is generated by data link layer whereas logical address is generated by network layer. If the data is to be transmitted within same network then there is no need of logical address on the other side if the data is to be transmitted in other network then logical address is required.

Data link layer add header and tailer on the packet it receive from the layer above it the header part contain the source address whereas tail part contain the address of next hop(router). When the packet arrive at router the router checks the the destination address from the logical address from the packet and re-transmit it to the next hop that is nearest to the destination.

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Mistigri

  • Mar 25th, 2016
 

Your answer is very close to the perfect explanation ! It would be interesting to draft a simple topology with 2x computers on different networks with 2x switches and 2 or 3 routers in between and explain the whole process. However, i do think i would be more accurate to say that the MAC addr. is used by the data link level inside of "generated", and IP address is used at the Network layer as well.
Looking forward for your replies.

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Sushmitha

  • Dec 14th, 2016
 

A physical address is a 48-bit flat address burned into the ROM of the NIC card which is a layer1 device of the OSI model. This is divided into 24-bit vendor code and 24-bit serial addtess. This is unique for each system and cannot be changed. It is also called MAC address. NIC-NETWORK INTERFACE CAD. A logical address is a 32-bit address assigned to each system in a network. Thus works in layer3 of OSI model. Thus would have generally the IP address which is given manually. It will change whenever change is required

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paras gautam

  • Aug 19th, 2017
 

A logical address is a 32 bit address which is also called ip address and it is used to uniquely identify a device on a network where physical address is also Media Access Control address it is 48 bit address every device in a network has its own unique MAC address

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Manu Ratheesh

  • Aug 26th, 2017
 

Physical Address: It is the address of a node defined by its LAN or WAN. It is included in the frame used by Data Link Layer. It is the lowest level address. The size and the format of these addresses vary depending on the network. Ex: Ethernet uses MAC address as the physical address.
Logical Address: A universal addressing system in which each host can be identified uniquely, regardless of the underlying physical network. Physical addresses are not adequate in an internetwork environment. where different networks an have different address formats.

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