3 ms·
And yet, despite far-from optimal allocation, no one is worried about running out of 48-bit MAC addresses, which need to be globally unique. That's because 64K
by dublin 6y ago
And yet, despite far-from optimal allocation, no one is worried about running out of 48-bit MAC addresses, which need to be globally unique. That's because 64K the size of the Internet is more than adequate.
- throw0101a 6y agoThe original (experimental) Ethernet paper published in 1976 only had 8-bit addresses. They then went into 'production' with the DIX Ethernet II standard in 1980 with the now well-known 48-bit MAC, however the standard states that at the Physical Layer the maximum number of stations was 1024 (§1): * https://ethernethistory.typepad.com/papers/EthernetSpec.pdf https://ethernethistory.typepad.com/papers/EthernetSpec.pdf So while yes, the address space was bigger, the scope over which Ethernet had to work was much smaller and less ambitious (IMHO). No routing involved for example.