Why are Ethernet/MAC Addresses Needed?

On the off chance that you are still new to the entire systems administration thing, then it can be a bit overpowering when you first begin finding out about the various types of locations included and how they cooperate. Today's SuperUser Q&A post looks to clear up the disarray for an inquisitive peruser. 

Today's Question & Answer session comes to us cordiality of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a group driven gathering of Q&A site

Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Question

SuperUser peruser user2449761 needs to know all the more about the requirement for Ethernet/MAC addresses: 

I don't comprehend why Ethernet/MAC locations are required. Clearly all PCs could simply be joined with a bound together system and utilization IP locations to impart? 

Case in point, there is the accompanying instrument in Ethernet: 

A PC with the IP address 192.168.1.1 (X.1) needs to send a bundle to the location 192.168.1.2 (X.2). 

X.1 utilizes ARP to get the MAC location of X.2. 

To do as such, X.1 needs to send a bundle to all PCs in the system and stand out will reply. 

X.1 gets a MAC address and sends the bundle. 

It would be more straightforward to take care of business in one stage: 

X.1 sends a bundle to all PCs in the system and just X.2 will prepare it, the others will overlook it. 

My other inquiry is: Why are IP locations required if all gadgets have exceptional MAC addresses? 

Why is there a requirement for Ethernet/MAC addresses?

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The Answer

SuperUser benefactor Paul has the response for us: 

The distinctive system layers are there to permit them to be swapped for diverse advancements. The two layers you are discussing here are Layers 2 and 3. Layer 2 in this situation is Ethernet – from which MAC locations emerge, and Layer 3 is IP. 

Ethernet just works at the nearby level between system gadgets associated with a telecast system "information join," though IP is a routable convention and can target gadgets on remote systems. 

The necessities for each of these layers is distinctive. Ethernet indicates a group of innovations that permit parcels to be sent and got between system gadgets, though IP characterizes a convention that permits bundles of information to cross various systems. 

Nor is dependent on the other, which is the thing that gives systems administration its adaptability. For instance, you may decide to unite with your Internet administration utilizing IP over Ethernet, yet in your inside system, you may decide to utilize IP over paper (where somebody records the substance of every parcel and physically strolls it over to an alternate machine and sorts it in). Obviously this would not be especially quick, however it would in any case be IP given the individual bearing the bits of paper regarded IP directing tenets. 

In this present reality there are diverse information join conventions that you are as of now utilizing (in spite of the fact that their tending to plans are the same): 802.3 – Ethernet, and 802.11 – Wi-Fi. 

IP does not give a second thought what the hidden layer is. Similarly, IP can be swapped out for distinctive system layer conventions (gave it happens to all members, for example, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM). 

While there is nothing straightforwardly keeping the production of a convention that includes both Layers 2 and 3, it would be less adaptable, less alluring, and consequently unrealistic to be utilized. 

Make a point to peruse through whatever remains of the energetic discourse string by means of the connection be

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