Broadcast
Any packet destined for all stations on a network segment is considered broadcast traffic.
Broadcast addresses are usually used by ARP, DHCP, and other protocols that do some sort of discovery.
Ethernet (and other 802.x networks)
Ethernet has designated the all-ones address (ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff) for broadcast traffic; this is used for other 802.x networks as well.
IPv4
Similarly, the all-ones IP address (255.255.255.255) is broadcast. If the host portion of an IP address is all ones (e.g. if the address is 192.168.0.255 and the netmask is 255.255.255.0), that address is also a broadcast address.
The broadcast IP address in the early days were 0.0.0.0, but was a long time ago, and zeroes are no longer used in the wildcard section of broadcast addresses.
IPv6
There are no broadcast IPv6 addresses - RFC 2373 states "There are no broadcast addresses in IPv6, their function being superseded by multicast addresses."
See Also
Discussion
You're still here? (For the Cliff Clavins)
RFC919 "BROADCASTING INTERNET DATAGRAMS"
RFC922 "BROADCASTING INTERNET DATAGRAMS IN THE PRESENCE OF SUBNETS"
Both RFCs above reference IEN-212 (pristine scan of a hard copy here )
RFC919 - 6. Robert Gurwitz and Robert Hinden. IP - Local Area Network Addressing Issues. IEN-212, Bolt Beranek and Newman, September 1982.
RFC922 - 6. Robert Gurwitz and Robert Hinden. IP - Local Area Network Addressing Issues. IEN-212, BBN, September 1982.
When Walker, Richer & Quinn rebranded as WRQ, the joke was they went from sounding like a law firm to sounding like a radio station. Same for BBN.
Imported from https://wiki.wireshark.org/Broadcast on 2020-08-11 23:11:37 UTC