A group of computers connected by a layer 2 Switch, can communicate each other by the layer 2 address i.e. MAC address. Does IP address also require on LAN(Layer 2) network(assuming there is no Router exists in the given LAN network) to communicate messages between hosts for a given applications(HTTP,FTP)?
For example, Computer A running a browser and trying to access a http server hosted on computer B. Now both the computer A and B are connected by a Layer 2 Switch(Ethernet Switch). Now in this scenario http shouldn't require an IP address.. rather MAC is enough to communicate between computer A and B. But still we do provide IP to both the computer .. WHY?