[e2e] use of MAC addresses

[Ted Faber]

On Tue, Apr 11, 2006 at 12:20:47AM +0500, Fahad Dogar wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have a very basic question: in theory, can we NOW use IP addresses
> in place of MAC addresses.

Short answer: "yes," with an "if."
Long answer: "no," with a "but."

IP addresses are (in principle) globally routable.  Having a locally
routable namespace under your link layer's complete control may be a
useful thing.  

It's rare in the world of computers that removing a layer of indirection
makes your system more versatile.  There are quite a few tricks that
take advantage of the layer of indirection that a link layer address
provides to give faster response on a subnet basis, simple redundancy,
etc.

Of course you could get rid of them (assuming you're willing to live in
the smaller, more constained IP address space).  An identifier's an
identifier.

Why would you want to?

-- 
Ted Faber
http://www.isi.edu/~faber           PGP: http://www.isi.edu/~faber/pubkeys.asc
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