The ability of the Physical Layer to adjust to our lifestyle means the Data Layer has taken on a much bigger role.

A laptop might be wired to the network during the morning and later be wireless while you work on your porch. As devices move, the Physical Layer is constantly adjusting based on the situation. Today, we are constantly moving around a city or town, or just from one room in the house to another. The MAC address is used in the Data Layer.Īs we become a more mobile society, gone are the days of only being able to access information from specific places, like a desk or a kiosk. This medium, whatever form it takes, it known as the Physical Layer in the OSI model.

That medium can be a copper cable, a fiber optic cable, or a radio. Medium Access Control (MAC, also called Media Access Control) addresses are how devices, wired and wireless, interact with the medium where they intend to send traffic. To understand why this is making waves with IT professionals, we need to get a little nerdy here. Apple announced a new privacy feature with the latest Apple iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 using MAC randomization. MAC randomization sounds more like what would happen at your neighborhood fast food joint than a cause for rumblings throughout the IT crowd.