The address resolution protocol (ARP) is used to associate the 32 bit IP address with the 48 bit physical address, used by a host or a router to find the physical address of another host on its network by sending a ARP query packet that includes the IP address of the receiver.
The reverse address resolution protocol (RARP) allows a host to discover its Internet address when it knows only its physical address.
The adress resolution protocol (ARP) associates an IP address with the physical adress. On a typical physical network (eg: LAN) each device on a link is identified by a physical or station adress usually imprinted on the network interface card(NIC)Physical adresses can be changed easily on the other hand IP addresses cannot be changed. ARP is ued to find the physical adress of the node when its internet address is known. The reverse adress resolution protocol(RARP) allows host to discover its internet address when it known only its physical address. RARP works much like ARP. To obtain IP adress the host first broadcasts an RARP request packet containing its MAC address on the network. All hosts on the network recieve the packet but only the server replier to the host by sending an RARP response packet containing the host's MAC and IP addresses. One limitation with RARP is that the server must be located on the same physical network as the host
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