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Data Link Sublayers

The data link layer is divided into two sublayers: Logical Link Control (LLC) and Media Access Control (MAC). The LLC sublayer manages communications between devices over a single link of a network. This sublayer supports fields in link-layer frames that enable multiple higher-layer protocols to share a single physical link.

The MAC sublayer governs protocol access to the physical network medium. Through the MAC addresses that are typically assigned to all ports on a device, multiple devices on the same physical link can uniquely identify one another at the data link layer. MAC addresses are used in addition to the network addresses that are typically configured manually on ports within a network.

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