ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) maps logical IP addresses to physical MAC addresses. It works by broadcasting an ARP request packet containing the logical IP address, and the physical host with that IP will respond with its MAC address in an ARP reply packet. ARP packets are encapsulated within Ethernet frames to be transmitted at the data link layer, and ARP is used to resolve addresses both for hosts on the same local network and for traffic destined for a default router on another network.