{"id":2595,"date":"2011-10-21T16:44:51","date_gmt":"2011-10-21T16:44:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/unicast-address\/"},"modified":"2012-04-10T13:30:25","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T13:30:25","slug":"unicast-address","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address","title":{"rendered":"Unicast Address"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_unicast_address_mean\">What Does Unicast Address Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A unicast address is an address that identifies a unique node on a network. Unicast addressing is available in IPv4 and IPv6 and typically refers to a single sender or a single receiver, although it can be used in both sending and receiving.<\/p>\n<p>A unicast address packet is transferred to a network node, which includes an interface address. The unicast address is then inserted into the destination&#8217;s packet header, which is sent to the network device destination.<\/p>\n<p>Unicast is the most common form of IP addressing.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_unicast_address\">Techopedia Explains Unicast Address<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A unicast address identifies a network device, such as a workstation or a server. A unicast address on a local area network (LAN) contains a subnet prefix and an interface ID.<\/p>\n<p>A unicast address is used in the following instances:\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unspecified Interface Address: A unicast address with a value of 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 is used in the absence of an unspecified interface address.<\/li>\n<li>Loopback Address: A unicast address with a value of 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 is used to specify a loopback address used to redirect the packets to their source.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Unicast Address Mean? A unicast address is an address that identifies a unique node on a network. Unicast addressing is available in IPv4 and IPv6 and typically refers to a single sender or a single receiver, although it can be used in both sending and receiving. A unicast address packet is transferred to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[217,245,219,248],"class_list":["post-2595","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-hardware","definitioncat-internet","definitioncat-networks","definitioncat-networking-hardware"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is Unicast Address? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Unicast Address and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Unicast Address\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Unicast Address and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-04-10T13:30:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Unicast Address\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-21T16:44:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-04-10T13:30:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address\"},\"wordCount\":182,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/2464\/unicast-address\",\"name\":\"What is Unicast Address? 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