Important Terms Associated with ARP
- Reverse ARP
- Proxy ARP
- Inverse ARP
Reverse ARP
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol is a protocol that is used in local area networks (LAN) by client machines for requesting IP Address (IPv4) from Router’s ARP Table. Whenever a new machine comes, which requires an IP Address for its use. In that case, the machine sends a RARP broadcast packet containing MAC Address in the sender and receiver hardware field.
Proxy ARP
Proxy Address Resolution Protocol work to enable devices that are separated into network segments connected through the router in the same IP to resolve IP Address to MAC Address. Proxy ARP is enabled so that the ‘proxy router’ resides with its MAC address in a local network as it is the desired router to which broadcast is addressed. In case, when the sender receives the MAC Address of the Proxy Router, it is going to send the datagram to Proxy Router, which will be sent to the destination device.
Inverse ARP
Inverse Address Resolution Protocol uses MAC Address to find the IP Address, it can be simply illustrated as Inverse ARP is just the inverse of ARP. In ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) Networks, Inverse ARP is used by default. Inverse ARP helps in finding Layer-3 Addresses from Layer-2 Addresses.
How Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Works?
When computer programs send or get messages, they usually use something called an IP address, which is like a virtual address. But underneath, the real talk happens using another type of address called a MAC address, which is like a device’s actual home address.
So, our goal is to find out the MAC address of where we want to talk to. That’s where ARP comes in handy. It helps by turning the IP address into the physical MAC address, so we can chat with other devices on the network
Most computer programs/applications use logical addresses (IP Addresses) to send/receive messages. However, the actual communication happens over the Physical Address (MAC Address) from layer 2 of the OSI model. So our mission is to get the destination MAC Address which helps communicate with other devices. This is where ARP comes into the picture; its functionality is to translate IP addresses into physical addresses.