Method and apparatus for deriving a standard MAC address from physical location

A media access control (MAC) address is associated with a particular hardware location (e.g. slot) in the network rather than to the card itself. Thus, the card's MAC address assigned by the manufacturer is effectively ignored. When a card is first plugged into a slot, it is initialized with the MAC address of the slot. Thus, if a destination address in a received data frame matches the MAC address of the slot, the card will recognize the data frame. Likewise, when a Card transmits a data frame, the source address in the frame is changed to match the Slot MAC address prior to being sent over the network. This has the advantage that no update of additional databases/servers need be made upon hardware replacement. Further, it is very useful in identifying sources of messages or localizing faults in the communication network.