University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Data delivery across networks relies on distinct addressing mechanisms operating at different layers:

* **MAC Address:** A permanent hardware address burned into a device's network interface card. It uniquely identifies a device within a local network segment.
* **IP Address:** A logical address used to route data across interconnected networks. IPv4 addresses (such as `192.168.1.5`) provide approximately 4 billion unique addresses. Because IPv4 address space became depleted, IPv6 was introduced with much longer addresses to accommodate growing numbers of devices.
* **Port Number:** Identifies a specific program, application, or service running on a host. Standard examples include port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS.
* **Domain Name System (DNS):** Functions as the Internet's directory, translating human-readable domain names (such as `example.com`) into machine-usable numerical IP addresses.

Together, an IP address combined with a port number specifies the precise application on a target host that should receive incoming data.

Network Addressing and Identity

Which network identifier is a permanent hardware address burned directly into a network interface card to identify a device within a local network segment?

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