Addressing

The What and Where of

Communication

Addressing

Addressing is necessary for any

communication

To talk: Appearance, name,

To call: Telephone numbers
To mail: Postal address
To visit: Postal address + directions
To E-Mail: E-Mail addresses
To instant message: ICQ#, AIM ID, etc.

These addresses allow us to uniquely

identify the entity with which we wish to
communicate

Addressing a la Shoch

Name/Identifier: What
Names normally identify the entity
If an entity moves, the name/identity will remain
the same

Address: Where
Addresses identify the location of the entity
If an entity moves, the address will change

Route: How to get there

Routes identify the path to get to an entity
If an entity moves, the route will change

Addressing

Addressing deals with how to define an

entitys location (uniquely)
Addressing is necessary for message
delivery
An address is the start and end point for
the route
However, routing is another subject

Where do we want the message to go?

Addresses

We have already seen MAC addresses (for

Ethernet and some other LANs):

e.g. 02-60-8C-08-E1-0C
6 octet address
Globally unique
Defined statically by the hardware manufacturer

Most people are familiar with the IP

addresses used by TCP/IP networks:

e.g. 137.207.32.2
4 octet address
Not necessarily globally unique
Defined dynamically by DHCP servers or
negotiated by the operating system

IP Addressing
A Closer Look

IP Addresses

TCP/IP networks use IP for the network layer

protocol
IP defines 4 octet addresses
4 billion possible addresses

Usually written in the form A.B.C.D

A, B, C, and D are each 1 octet (0-255), normally
written in decimal notation
Thus, IP addresses fall in the range:
0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255

IP Addresses

Originally intended for separate

internets (interconnected LANs)
Thus, the 32 bit size was not a concern
48 bits is generally considered a fairly safe
size for globally unique addressing
Computers connected to ARPANET (and
later incarnations) were just given
consecutive addresses
1.0.0.0, 1.0.0.1, 1.0.0.2,

IP Addresses

Any computer connected to a TCP/IP

network (e.g. the Internet) must have an
IP address
Further, any network interface card
(NIC) using TCP/IP to access an
network (e.g. the Internet) must have a
different IP address

IP Addresses

Even though there are 4 billion possible

IP addresses, they are running out
Heres why:
Some of the bits are dedicated to header
information (discussed later)
the addresses for each lost bit

Addresses are categorized, and some of

the categories are running out of
addresses (while others are not)

Non-Classed Addresses

Part of the address represented the network

the computer resided on, and part
represented the computer itself
Network: 7 bits (up to 128 networks)
Computer: 24 bits (up to 1.6 million computers on
each network)

Since there were very few networks on

ARPANET originally, this wasnt a problem

Address Classes

When private organizations started

joining the Internet, the needs became
obvious
Some (fewer) networks have multitudes of
computers (thousands)
e.g. The @Home network

Some (many) networks have very few

computers (a few hundred or less)
e.g. The Windsor Police Department

Address Classes

Quickly, the addresses were separated

into 3 classes (plus room for more
classes if needed):
Class A: Fewer networks, many nodes
Class B: Medium networks, medium
nodes
Class C: Many networks, fewer nodes

IP Address Classes
Class A:
bit index: 0
1-7
0 network
Class B:
bit index: 0 1
1 0

2-15
network

Class C:
bit index: 0 1 2
1 1 0

3-23
network

8-31
host (machine)

16-31
host

24-31
host

IP Address Classes

Class A:
Range: 1.0.0.0 126.0.0.0
Networks: 128 max, Machines: 65537-1.6 million
e.g. huge networks, such as large
military/government organizations (e.g. FBI), the
@Home network, etc

Class B:
Range: 128.1.0.0 191.255.0.0
Networks: 16384 max, Machines: 257-65536
e.g. Internet service providers (ISPs) (dial-up)

Class C:
Range: 192.1.0.0 223.255.255.0
Networks: 2 million max, Machines: 1-256
e.g. Small businesses

IP Address Classes

The IP address classes are self-identifying

Which means that given the address, you can
determine what class an address is
Actually, using only the first number

Examples:
137.207.32.2 (server.uwindsor.ca)
137 -> Class B

24.0.0.1 (@Home DHCP server)

24 -> Class A

Other IP Address Classes

Class D:
bit index: 0 1 2 3
1 1 1 0

4-31
Multicast group address

These addresses are used to represent multicast groups

Discussed later
Class E:
bit index: 0 1 2 3 4
1 1 1 1 0

5-31
Reserved for future use

These addresses were left open to be used and divided

into classes as needed

Special IP Addresses

0.0.0.0: Used to indicate that this machine is

without an assigned IP
Used during bootstrapping (e.g. requesting an IP
from a DHCP server)

<all 0s (binary)><hostID>: Used to send

messages to some machine on this network
255.255.255.255: Used to send broadcast
messages across this machines network
<netID><all 1s (binary)>: Used to send
broadcast messages to the specified network
127.0.0.1: Used to send messages back to
this machine (called loopback or localhost)

IP Addressing Comments

In IP addressing:
0s usually represent this
1s usually represent all

Broadcasting, although discussed here

in terms of addressing, will be
discussed further

Loopback

The 127.0.0.1 address, does not normally

exist on the network
Either as the source address or destination
address of a packet

The address is used internally by NICs

When a NIC receives a message addressed with
127.0.0.1 to be transmitted, it passes the message
directly to the receiver hardware
The receiver hardware returns the message to the
operating system exactly as if the message were
received from the network
However, the message never entered the network
medium

Internal IP Addresses

Depending on the address class needed by

an organization, a range of internal
addresses is available:
Class A: 10.0.0.0 10.255.255.255
Class B: 172.16.0.0 172.31.255.255
Class C: 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255

IP routers outside a private (connectionshared) network, will not forward datagrams

designated for addresses in these ranges

Network Addresses

An IP address can be used to calculate the

address of the network
The machine address is passed through a
filter (called a subnet filter):
This filter extracts the bits of the address that
represent the network and sets the bits that
represent the machine to zero
The filter determines which part of the address
represent the network address, by using the
subnet mask

Subnet Mask

The subnet mask is a binary number, that has

0s in the machine portion of the address, and
1s in the network portion
Most networks of each type use a constant
subnet mask
Class A: 255.0.0.0
(Binary: 11111111000000000000000000000000)

Class B: 255.255.0.0
(Binary: 11111111111111110000000000000000)

Class C: 255.255.255.0
(Binary: 11111111111111111111111100000000)

Using Subnet Masks

Example:
Address: 137.207.32.2
Subnet Mask: 255.255.0.0

Address:
10001001110011110010000000000010
Mask:
11111111111111110000000000000000
Net Address: 10001001110011110000000000000000

Network address: 137.207.0.0