Local area network without using the IP protocol in Linux I've read a little about Internet protocols and deduced that on local area network, there is no need to use the IP protocol, though it's normally used. Is there a possibility to turn off the IP protocol in Linux and use only MAC (ethernet) addresses for frame delivering? How would you do it? I guess there will be a problem with `TCP`. I'm not sure if it can work on top of `LLC layer`. The IP protocol overhead is so small that it's being used on LANs (with hubs) too?

There are protocols like AoE (ATA over Ethernet) that allows communication without IP. The problem is that such protocols aren't that common. In fact, I can't see any at the moment, except for dinosaurs such as the old file sharing protocols of yore like Banyan Vines, DECNET, etc.

There's a reason why IP took over after all. The overhead doesn't represent much anymore to our hardware, and adds flexibility.