Ch a p te r 1 : M at he mat i c s i n

Co m put e r Net w or kin g

By the end of this section of the practical, the student should be able to:

 Convert binary, decimal and hexadecimal numbering system

 Relate numbering systems in computer network
 Represent binary and hexadecimal number in IP address concept

1.1 Introduction
A numbering system such as binary, decimal and hexadecimal numbers are
important to many computer network aspects. Bits normally represent in binary
operations base 2 for most basic operation in computer network. Meanwhile,
hexadecimal numbers can aid easily for some number representation to
overcome some difficulty in binary number operation. As we are human normally
corresponding with decimal numbers base 10.

Preparation

The following workout will be required. Please work in groups of two people.

i. Convert binary, decimal, and hexadecimal numbers.

ii. Convert IP address between decimal and binary

Number System Related in Computer Networking

A computer device such as RAM, CPU and network card normally works well in
binary digit because they consist of several chips that can be placed into either
an on or off state. A computer stores combination 8 bits, normally named as 8-
bit byte. Units for data rates which a network sends data from one device to
another device can be represented in bits and bytes. Figure 1.1 shows the
relationships between bits and bytes.

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 Figure 1.1: Relationship between Bits and Bytes

Table illustrated term and units in transmission rates in bits and bytes.

Table 1.1: Units Transmission in Bits and Bytes

Numbers of Bits per Number of Bytes Term

Second per second

1000 125 Kilobit per second(Kbps)

8000 (8*1000) 1000 KiloBytes per second (KBps)

1 000 000 125 000 Megabit per second (Mbps)

8 000 000 (8*1 000 000) 1 000 000 MegaByte per second (MBps)

1 billion 125 million Gigabits per second (Gbps)

8 billion (8*1 billion) 1 billion GigaByte per seconds (GBps)

1 trillion 125 billion Terabits per seconds (Tbps)

8 trillion (8*1 trillion) 1 trillion Terabyte per second (TBps)

1.2 Converting numbering system

Let‟s first begin with most common numbers and its possible digit to gain
familiarities in understanding the numbering system concepts. Table 1.2 shows
different types of number system and its possible digits.

Table1.2: Types of Number

System Base Possible Digits

Binary 2 0 1
Decimal 10 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Hexadecimal 16 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

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Decimal number (base 10)

The assigned value weighted is composed by 10 digits starting from 0 until 9.

The positive and negative values are determined by their position weighted
structure. For example:

... 105 104 103 102 101 100 (positive value)

102 101 100 10-1 10-2 10-3 … (negative value)

Consider the number 2139 for example, the associated values with digits in
decimal numbering are shown in Table 1.3.

Table 1.3: Decimal Numbering Associated Value

Powers of 10 103 102 101 100

Associated value 1000 100 10 1

Digits 2 1 3 9

Binary number (base 2)

Binary number consist only two digits 0 and 1. The weighted structure of binary
number is:

Binary Points
5 4 3 2 1 0
... 2 2 2 2 2 2 (positive value)

22 21 20 2-1 2-2 2-3 … (negative value )

2n-1… 23 22 21 20. 2-1 2-2 … 2-n

To represent the binary number, we have to look at the least significant bit (LSB)
and most significant bits (MSB).

MSB LSB

1000001110

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Consider the number 139 for example, the associated values with digits in binary
numbering are shown in Table 1.4.

Table1.4: Binary Numbering Associated Value

Powers of 10 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20

Associated value 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1

Binary 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 1

Sum of products 139

Hexadecimal number (base 16)

The composed number starts from 0 until F. In Table 1.5, it is best practice to
represent the hexadecimal number in four bit numbers.

Table 1.5: Number System Conversion

DECIMAL BINARY HEXADECIMAL

0 0000 0
1 0001 1
2 0010 2
3 0011 3
4 0100 4
5 0101 5
6 0110 6
7 0111 7
8 1000 8
9 1001 9
10 1010 A
11 1011 B
12 1100 C
13 1101 D
14 1110 E
15 1111 F

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The associated values with digits in hexadecimal numbering are shown in Table
1.6.
Table 1.6: Hexadecimal Numbering Associated Value

Powers of 10 163 162 161 160

Associated value 4096 256 16 1

Hexadecimal 1 A 1 C

Sum of product 6684

The popular values in decimal numbers are 0, 128, 192, 224, 240, 248, 252, 254,
and 255 when working with IP address. The decimal value might be a good
practice in conversion process from decimal to binary and hexadecimal IP
address.

Let‟s perform some calculation practice in converting IP Address for decimal,

binary and hexadecimal number. Normally, IP addresses are 32-bit binary
numbers. Human find out it is inconvenient to write the binary IP Address, the
dotted decimal format for each octet are used to present the IP address in
decimal point.

There are three step of simple practice to convert IP Address from decimal octet
to binary and hexadecimal octet. For example, Table 1.7 shows a simple
conversion of an IP address 10.1.132.255.

Table 1.7: IP Address conversion

1st octet 2nd octet 3rd octet 4th octet

10 1 132 255
Decimal Digits
0000 1010 0000 0001 1000 0100 1111 1111
Binary
A 1 84 FF
Hexadecimal
10.1.132.255
Dotted IP decimal
Address
A.1.84.FF
Dotted IP hexadecimal
Address

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1.3 Self-Review Questions
1. Convert the following IP address to binary and hexadecimal equivalent.
i. 255.255.255.0
ii. 12.14.236.187
iii. 19.15.45.3
iv. 10.7.8.199
v. 128.11.3.31
vi. 175.12.219.244
vii. 253.231.2.2

2. MAC addresses are 12-digit hexadecimal numbers (48 bits in length). Convert
the following MAC address to binary equivalent.
i. 00:A0:C9:14:C8:29
ii. 11:12:FF:0A:AB:CD
iii. 00-1D-60-2F-4B