Is it necessary to manually set the interface broadcast address?

Solution 1:

There is no need to set the broadcast address manually, it is determined automatically from the IP network and subnet mask.

Solution 2:

In my environment if I do not set the broadcast address I can ping the new IP from all resources within the local "physical" subnet, e.g. every device directly connected to my switch. However, I cannot ping the new IP from any device connected to my wireless router, which the switch is plugged into. By adding the broadcast address, the wireless router detects the new IP and all devices see each other regardless of how they are connected. This might be dependent on the manufacturer of the equipment I use/my individual topology, but was indeed necessary.

Solution 3:

The correct answer for the question is: ip addr add 192.168.2.1/24 brd + dev eth0

This is how iproute2 defines the broadcast address for the network interface.