How are IP broadcasts handled at lower levels

[EngrArif123]

When I use a broadcast IP address, for example 198.255.255.255, what will happen when it gets passed down to the link-layer which will then look for the corresponding MAC address in your ARP table. Does your ARP table have an entry for 198.255.255.255;FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF, if not, how can the link-layer know it should use FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF as physical address to broadcast it into the subnet?

[balaji.bandi]

Hope below information helps you :

https://study-ccna.com/arp/

https://www.practicalnetworking.net/series/arp/traditional-arp/#:~:text=As%20we've%20learned%20before,path%20between%20two%20end%20points.

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

interesting question. I did a debug when sending a limited broadcast, and the all 1s broadcast is never matched to a physical MAC address. So it appears to be just an implementation of the TCP stack, all 1s means send to all MAC addresses in the broadcast domain. It is not bound to a 'special' MAC address...

[Mark Elsen]

 - As George said , an ip-broadcast is not a layer2-broadcast, broadcast is done to the targeted ip-subnet-members and or ARP resolved when needed (only).

 M.

[krunker]

Yes, if that's your network's broadcast address. It will also include an entry for the Limited Broadcast address 255.255.255.255 pertaining to ff-ff-ff-ff-ff-ff.

This is visible if you display your ARP table (arp -a for Windows).
krunker