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by negative_zero 249 days ago
Network people: Do we even need MAC addresses anymore? Can we not just have a UUID that the device generates?

They seem to get more abuse over time i.e. MACs are how a car is uniquely identified and authenticated with fast charging CCS networks for Autocharge.

2 comments

> Can we not just have a UUID that the device generates?

They kinda are already, your phone probably uses a random MAC address for each network it connects to.

We don't NEED it, just like we don't need to use IP. But the standards are just easy to use. Feel free to develop your own L2 protocol. I remember using SLIP to make a point to point over FM radio, and there was no addressing used, just IP.