As a further, textual convention in the MIB, the datatype
PhysAddress ::= OCTET STRING
is introduced to represent media- or physical-level addresses.
The following objects are now defined in terms of PhysAddress:
ifPhysAddress atPhysAddress ipNetToMediaPhysAddress
It should be noted that this change has no effect on either the syntax nor semantics of these objects. The use of the PhysAddress notation is merely an artifact of the explanatory method used in MIB-II and future MIBs.