What type of address is a MAC address?

A MAC address, or Media Access Control address, is classified as a physical address. It is a unique identifier assigned to network interfaces for communications at the data link layer of a network segment. Each MAC address is hard-coded into a network interface card (NIC) and consists of six groups of two hexadecimal digits, often represented as a string of numbers and letters.

The significance of the MAC address being a physical address lies in its role in local network communications. It is used primarily within a local network to ensure that data packets are sent to the correct device on that network. Unlike logical addresses, such as IP addresses, which can change as devices connect to different networks, a MAC address remains constant for the lifespan of the hardware.

MAC addresses also help facilitate the functioning of protocols such as Ethernet, where devices on the same local area network (LAN) use MAC addresses to identify each other uniquely. This physical addressing allows for direct communication within the same network before any higher-level addressing (like IP addressing) comes into play for larger-scale communication across networks.