diff --git a/src/basic/ether-addr-util.h b/src/basic/ether-addr-util.h
index 794fc55bb8..c5cfdb4233 100644
--- a/src/basic/ether-addr-util.h
+++ b/src/basic/ether-addr-util.h
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@
 #include <stdbool.h>
 
 #include "hash-funcs.h"
+#include "macro.h"
+#include "memory-util.h"
 
 /* This is MAX_ADDR_LEN as defined in linux/netdevice.h, but net/if_arp.h
  * defines a macro of the same name with a much lower size. */
@@ -35,7 +37,8 @@ static inline bool hw_addr_equal(const struct hw_addr_data *a, const struct hw_a
         return hw_addr_compare(a, b) == 0;
 }
 static inline bool hw_addr_is_null(const struct hw_addr_data *addr) {
-        return hw_addr_equal(addr, &HW_ADDR_NULL);
+        assert(addr);
+        return addr->length == 0 || memeqzero(addr->bytes, addr->length);
 }
 
 extern const struct hash_ops hw_addr_hash_ops;
@@ -60,6 +63,26 @@ static inline bool ether_addr_is_null(const struct ether_addr *addr) {
         return ether_addr_equal(addr, &ETHER_ADDR_NULL);
 }
 
+static inline bool ether_addr_is_broadcast(const struct ether_addr *addr) {
+        assert(addr);
+        return memeqbyte(0xff, addr->ether_addr_octet, ETH_ALEN);
+}
+
+static inline bool ether_addr_is_multicast(const struct ether_addr *addr) {
+        assert(addr);
+        return FLAGS_SET(addr->ether_addr_octet[0], 0x01);
+}
+
+static inline bool ether_addr_is_unicast(const struct ether_addr *addr) {
+        return !ether_addr_is_multicast(addr);
+}
+
+static inline bool ether_addr_is_local(const struct ether_addr *addr) {
+        /* Determine if the Ethernet address is locally-assigned one (IEEE 802) */
+        assert(addr);
+        return !FLAGS_SET(addr->ether_addr_octet[0], 0x02);
+}
+
 int ether_addr_from_string(const char *s, struct ether_addr *ret);
 
 extern const struct hash_ops ether_addr_hash_ops;
diff --git a/src/network/networkctl.c b/src/network/networkctl.c
index 3056710d78..b47cd8cd7b 100644
--- a/src/network/networkctl.c
+++ b/src/network/networkctl.c
@@ -554,7 +554,7 @@ static int decode_link(sd_netlink_message *m, LinkInfo *info, char **patterns, b
 
         info->has_mac_address =
                 netlink_message_read_hw_addr(m, IFLA_ADDRESS, &info->hw_address) >= 0 &&
-                !hw_addr_is_null(&info->hw_address);
+                info->hw_address.length > 0;
 
         info->has_permanent_mac_address =
                 ethtool_get_permanent_macaddr(NULL, info->name, &info->permanent_mac_address) >= 0 &&
diff --git a/src/network/networkd-link.c b/src/network/networkd-link.c
index ab2d42a482..5136a8820e 100644
--- a/src/network/networkd-link.c
+++ b/src/network/networkd-link.c
@@ -2036,7 +2036,7 @@ static int link_update_hardware_address(Link *link, sd_netlink_message *message)
         if (hw_addr_equal(&link->hw_addr, &addr))
                 return 0;
 
-        if (hw_addr_is_null(&link->hw_addr))
+        if (link->hw_addr.length == 0)
                 log_link_debug(link, "Saved hardware address: %s", HW_ADDR_TO_STR(&addr));
         else {
                 log_link_debug(link, "Hardware address is changed: %s → %s",