What is the purpose of the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)?

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What is the purpose of the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)?

The purpose of the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is to resolve or map an IP address to a physical or MAC address on a local network. In other words, ARP is used to find the MAC address of a device based on its IP address. This is necessary because devices communicate with each other using MAC addresses at the data link layer, while IP addresses are used at the network layer. ARP allows devices to dynamically discover and maintain a mapping between IP addresses and MAC addresses, enabling proper communication within a local network.