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From: DCP@QUABBIN.SCRC.SYMBOLICS.COM.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: ARP, ethernet and starlan
Message-ID: <870205183850.7.DCP@KOYAANISQATSI.S4CC.Symbolics.COM>
Date: Thu, 5-Feb-87 18:38:00 EST
Article-I.D.: KOYAANIS.870205183850.7.DCP
Posted: Thu Feb  5 18:38:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 7-Feb-87 17:23:29 EST
References: <8702051708.AA09339@monk.proteon.com>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 8
Approved: tcp-ip@sri-nic.arpa

The intention of the hardware type field in ARP packets is to
distinguish semantically different types of hardware.  If your Starlan
802.3 network is "semantically the same" as Ethernet, then for the
purposes of ARP it is Ethernet.  "Semantically the same" roughly means
"has the same number of hardware bytes in the address."  

Compare this with a 3Mbit Ethernet which has an 8 bit hardware address,
or an MIT Chaos net which has a 16 bit hardware address.