Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP) is a network layer protocol
used to obtain an IP address for a given hardware address (such as an Ethernet address). It has been rendered obsolete by BOOTP and the
more modern DHCP, which both support a much greater feature set than
RARP.
The primary limitations of RARP are that each MAC must be manually configured on
a central server, and that the protocol only conveys an IP address. This leaves configuration of subnetting, gateways, and other
information to other protocols or the user.
Another limitation of RARP compared to BOOTP or DHCP is that it is a non-IP protocol. This means that like ARP it can't be handled
by the TCP/IP stack on the client, but is instead implemented separately.
RARP is the complement of ARP.
RARP differs from Inverse Address Resolution Protocol (InARP), which is designed to locate the IP address associated with
another station's MAC address.
RARP is described in RFC 903.
See also
External links
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