ARP messages: Request, Reply, Probe, Announcement

ARP, as originally specified in RFC 826, had two message types: REQUEST and REPLY. But besides that one can hear of two "other" ARP messages: PROBE ANNOUNCEMENT, the latter also called "gratuitous ARP". They happen when a host send the reply message not in response to any preceding request; this has been formalized in RFC 5227.

One may find confusing that:

  • The two "new" messages do not extend the protocol. In particular, they do not introduce new ARP message types. How can we speak about "new messages"?
  • Source and destination MAC addresses are present in the MAC headers, but there are also "Source Hardware Address" and "Target Hardware Address" fields in the ARP body. Why this duplication?

These two questions are related. The table below shows the MAC headers and (relevant) ARP protocol fields for each of the four messages. The differences help to understand how each field is used.

Message Sent when the host... MAC headers ARP body
src MAC dst MAC message type Source Hardware Address Source Protocol Address Target Hardware Address Target Protocol Address
request wants to send an IP packet, but does not know the MAC address of the destination own broadcast REQUEST own own 0 destination's
reply receives an ARP request to an IP address this host owns own destination's, or broadcast1 REPLY own own requestor's requestor's
probe (RFC 5227, 2.1) configures a new IP address for an interface own broadcast REQUEST2 own 03 0 probed
announcement (RFC 5227, 2.3) after a probe, concludes that it will use the probed address own broadcast REQUEST2 own new own 0 new own

Notes to the table

  1. RFC 5227, section 2.6 explains why "Broadcast replies are not universally recommended, but may be appropriate in some cases".
  2. RFC 5227, section 3 notes that the type here could be REPLY as well, then continues to give reasons why REQUEST is recommended.
  3. Zero is specified here in order not to pollute ARP caches of other hosts in case when the probed address is already taken by someone else.

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