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    The usage "based on MAC address" here is an ellipsis of the definite article. The definite article is "understood". I don't know why, but it's idiomatic to do this in technical and scientific writing.
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 9:46
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    "an ellipsis of the definite article" -- what does that really mean? Well, that means the article is omitted! Duh! Guess what, I kind of see that there is no article!
    – Michael Rybkin
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 9:52
  • The fact that we're simply dealing with idiomatic usage here can more or less count as an explanation. What would be absolutely wonderful if you could just give a bunch of examples that share a similar pattern with the example in question.
    – Michael Rybkin
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 9:55
  • Something tells me though that we could just as easily substitute "based on MAC address" with "based on MAC address information" and the sentence would sound equally fine because the word "information" is alway uncountable and typically doesn't take an article. I think that observation in fact might help us arrive at a viable explanation to the original question.
    – Michael Rybkin
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 10:01
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    I would say that "based on MAC address" describes what is going to happen with each individual delivery. It's like saying "I arranged these numbers by size" (not "by sizes")
    – MPW
    Commented Nov 17, 2016 at 17:14