Logical Address

In computing, a logical address is the address at which an item (memory cell, storage element, network host) appears to reside from the perspective of an executing application program.

A logical address may be different from the physical address due to the operation of an address translator or mapping function. Such mapping functions may be, in the case of a computer memory architecture, a memory management unit (MMU) between the CPU and the memory bus, or an address translation layer, e.g., the Data Link Layer, between the hardware and the internetworking protocols (Internet Protocol) in a computer networking system.