Date First Published: 29th May 2022
Topic: Computer Networking
Subtopic: Network Identifiers
Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions
Difficulty: AdvancedDifficulty Level: 9/10
Learn more about what a broadcast address in this article.
A broadcast address is a preassigned IP address that is used for sending messages to each host in a network without the need to know their individual IP addresses. It can be thought of as talking to everyone in the same room at once without knowing all of their names, since broadcasting works in a similar way to that. Broadcasting is performed by networking hardware, such as routers and switches, which have the role of sending the data packet to every device in the same network. In an IPv4 address, the broadcast address is always the largest number of the string of numbers that identifies the host. For example, in a Class C network IP address ‘212.123.123.50’, the IP address ‘212.123.123.255’ is the preassigned broadcast address. The broadcast domain refers to the group of eligible devices.
On Ethernet, the broadcast MAC address is FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. There is a limited broadcast address in IPv4, called 255.255.255.255. Data packets that are sent through this address are never routed through a router.
Broadcast addresses are used by DHCP users and BOOTP to locate and send server requests. In addition, they are used by network administrators to verify successful transmission of data packets.
Broadcast addresses do not always end in 255. For example, in the 10.0.0.0/28 subnet, 10.0.0.15 is the broadcast address.
In a Class B network, where the first 16 bits identify the network and the remaining 16 bits identify the host, in the IP address ‘132.123.123.10’, the broadcast address would be 132.123.255.255. In a Class A network, where the first 8 bits identify the network and the remaining 24 bits identify the host, it allows for much more hosts than networks. In a Class A IP address ‘123.123.123.10’, the broadcast address would be ‘123.255.255.255’.
No, IPv6 does not have a broadcast address. Rather than a broadcast address, IPv6 uses a multicast address. Multicast addresses look like this: ‘ff00:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000/8’. In short form, that would be: ff00::/8. A multicast address cannot be the same as a source address.
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