Unit 4

Network Addressing, sub netting and masking

 Introduction
• Today, the Internet has entered the public
consciousness as the world's largest public data
network, doubling in size every nine months. This
is reflected in the tremendous popularity of the
World Wide Web (WWW), the opportunities that
businesses see in reaching customers from virtual
storefronts, and the emergence of new types and
methods of doing business. It is clear that
expanding business and social awareness will
continue to increase public demand for access to
resources on the Internet
• There is a direct relationship between the
value of the Internet and the number of sites
connected to the Internet. As the Internet
grows, the value of each site's connection to
the Internet increases because it provides the
organization with access to an ever expanding
user/customer population
An overview of IP (Internet Protocol)
address
• An IP address is a logical address of a
computer which is expressed as a four 8-bit
group of bits (a total of 32 bits) separated by
periods. Each 8-bit group of bits can be
represented by a 4-digit decimal that spans
between 0 and 255. For example 196.27.22.42
is a typical IP address of the DNS server of the
Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation
(ETC). The total number of distinct addresses
one can have from this 32 bit addressing
scheme is 232 = 4,294,967,296.
 Structure of IP address
• An IP address is simply a series of 32 binary
bits (ones and zeros). It is very difficult for
humans to read a binary IP address. For this
reason, the 32 bits are grouped into four 8-bit
bytes called octets. An IP address in this
format is hard for humans to read, write and
remember. To make the IP address easier to
understand, each octet is presented as its
decimal value, separated by a decimal point or
period. This is referred to as dotted-decimal
notation.
• The 32-bit IP address is defined with IP version
4 (IPv4) and is currently the most common
form of IP address on the Internet. There are
over 4 billion possible IP addresses using a 32-
bit addressing scheme.
 Parts of IP address
• The logical 32-bit IP address is hierarchical and
is made up of two parts. The first part
identifies the network and the second part
identifies a host on that network. Both parts
are required in an IP address.
• As an example, if a host has IP address
192.168.18.57 the first three octets (i.e.
192.168.18) identify the network portion of
the address, and the last octet (i.e. 57)
identifies the host.
• This is known as hierarchical addressing
because the network portion indicates the
network on which each unique host address is
located. Routers only need to know how to
reach each network, rather than needing to
know the location of each individual host.
• Another example of a hierarchical network is
the telephone system. With a telephone
number, the country code, area code and
exchange represent the network address and
the remaining digits represent a local phone
number.
 How IP address and Subnet mask Interact
• There are two parts to every IP address. How
do hosts know which portion is the network
and which is the host? This is the job of the
subnet mask.
• When an IP host is configured, a subnet mask
is assigned along with an IP address. Like the
IP address, the subnet mask is 32 bits long.
The subnet mask signifies which part of the IP
address is network and which part is host.
• The subnet mask is compared to the IP address
from left to right, bit for bit. The 1s in the subnet
mask represent the network portion; the 0s
represent the host portion. In the example
shown, the first three octets are network, and the
last octet represents the host.
• When a host sends a packet, it compares its
subnet mask to its own IP address and the
destination IP address. If the network bits match,
both the source and destination host are on the
same network and the packet can be delivered
locally. If they do not match, the sending host
forwards the packet to the local router interface
to be sent on to the other network.
• The subnet masks we see most often with
home and small business networking are:
255.0.0.0 (8-bits), 255.255.0.0 (16 bits) and
255.255.255.0 (24 bits). A subnet mask of
255.255.255.0 (decimal) or
11111111.11111111.1111111.00000000
(binary) uses 24 bits to identify the network
number which leaves 8 bits to number the
hosts on that network.
• To calculate the number of hosts that can be
on that network, take the number 2 to the
power of the number of host bits (28 = 256).
From this number, we must subtract 2 (256-2).
The reason we subtract 2 is because all 1s
within the host portion of an IP address is a
broadcast address for that network and
cannot be assigned to a specific host. All 0s
within the host portion indicates the network
ID and again, cannot be assigned to a specific
host.
• Another way to determine the number of
hosts available is to add up the values of the
available host bits (128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1 =
255). From this number, subtract 1 (255-1 =
254), because the host bits cannot be all 1s. It
is not necessary to subtract 2 because the
value of all 0s is 0 and is not included in the
addition.
 Standard IP Address Classes
Classful IP Addressing
• When IP was first standardized in September
1981, the specification required that each system
attached to an IP based internet be assigned a
unique, 32-bit Internet address value. Some
systems, such as routers which have interfaces to
more than one network, must be assigned a
unique IP address for each network interface.
• The first part of an Internet address identifies the
network on which the host resides, while the
second part identifies the particular host on the
given network. This created the two level
addressing hierarchy which is illustrated in the
figure below.
 Primary Address Classes
• In order to provide the flexibility required to
support different size networks, the designers
decided that the IP address space should be
divided into three different address classes - Class
A, Class B, and Class C. This is often referred to as
"classful" addressing because the address space
is split into three predefined classes, groupings,
or categories. Each class fixes the boundary
between the network-prefix and the host number
at a different point within the 32-bit address. The
formats of the fundamental address classes are
illustrated in the figure below.
 Class A Networks (/8 Prefixes)
• Each Class A network address has an 8-bit network-
prefix with the highest order bit set to 0 and a seven-
bit network number, followed by a 24-bit host-number.
Today, it is no longer considered 'modern' to refer to a
Class A network. Class A networks are now referred to
as "/8s" (pronounced "slash eight" or just "eights")
since they have an 8-bit network-prefix.
• A maximum of 126 (27-2) /8 networks can be defined.
The calculation requires that the 2 is subtracted
because the /8 network 0.0.0.0 is reserved for use as
the default route and the /8 network 127.0.0.0 (also
written 127/8 or 127.0.0.0/8) has been reserved for
the "loopback" function.
• Each /8 supports a maximum of
16,777,214 (224-2) hosts per network.
The host calculation requires that 2 is
subtracted because the all-0s ("this
network") and all-1s ("broadcast") host-
numbers may not be assigned to
individual hosts. Since the /8 address
block contains 231 (2,147,483,648)
individual addresses and the IPv4
address space contains a maximum of 232
(4,294,967,296) addresses, the /8
address space is 50% of the total IPv4
unicast address space.
 Class B Networks (/16 Prefixes)
• Each Class B network address has a 16-bit
network-prefix with the two highest order bits
set to 1-0 and a 14-bit network number,
followed by a 16-bit host-number. Class B
networks are now referred to as"/16s" since
they have a 16-bit network-prefix. A maximum
of 16,384 (214) /16 networks can be defined
with up to 65,534 (216-2) hosts per network.
Since the entire /16 address block contains 230
(1,073,741,824) addresses, it represents 25%
of the total IPv4 unicast address space.
 Class C Networks (/24 Prefixes)
• Each Class C network address has a 24-bit
network-prefix with the three highest order bits
set to 1-1-0 and a 21-bit network number,
followed by an 8-bit host-number. Class C
networks are now referred to as "/24s" since they
have a 24-bit network-prefix. A maximum of
2,097,152 (221) /24 networks can be defined with
up to 254 (28-2) hosts per network. Since the
entire /24 address block contains 229
(536,870,912) addresses, it represents 12.5% (or
1/8th) of the total IPv4 unicast address space.
 Other Classes
• In addition to the three most popular classes,
there are two additional classes. Class D
addresses have their leading four-bits set to 1-
1-1-0 and are used to support IP Multicasting.
Class E addresses have their leading four-bits
set to 1-1-1-1 and are reserved for
experimental use
Dotted-Decimal Notation
 Subnetting
• In 1985, RFC 950 defined a standard procedure to
support the subnetting, or division, of a single
Class A, B, or C network number into smaller
pieces. Subnetting was introduced to overcome
some of the problems that parts of the Internet
were beginning to experience with the classful
two-level addressing hierarchy:
• - Internet routing tables were beginning to
grow.
• - Local administrators had to request another
network number from the Internet before a new
network could be installed at their site.
• Both of these problems were attacked by adding
another level of hierarchy to the IP addressing
structure. Instead of the classful two-level
hierarchy, subnetting supports a three-level
hierarchy. The figure below illustrates the basic
idea of sub netting which is to divide the
standard classful host-number field into two
parts - the subnet-number and the host number
on that subnet.
 Subnet Design Considerations
• The deployment of an addressing plan
requires careful thought on the part of the
network administrator. There are two key
questions that must be answered before any
design should be undertaken:
• 1) How many total subnets does the
organization need today and in the future?
• 2) How many hosts are there on the
organization's largest subnet today and in the
future?
 Private Address Space
• There are two types of IP addresses: - public and
private. The private address space is used to
communicate in a local (Intranet) network where
the computers are not visible to the global
network (the Internet). Whereas public IP
addresses are visible to the Internet. Private IP
addresses can be used in any network as long as
they are unique in the specific Intranet.
• These blocks of private IP addresses that are
reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA) for private networks are shown
in table below.
 Starting Address Ending Address Remark

1 10.0.0.0 10.255.255.255 We can have 224 private IP

addresses

2 172.16.0.0 172.31.255.255 We can have 220 private IP

addresses

3 192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255 We can have 216 private IP

addresses
 Some protocols used with IP
Address Resolution Protocol
• In order for devices to communicate, the sending
devices need both, the IP addresses and the MAC
addresses, of the destination devices. When they
try to communicate with devices whose IP
addresses they know, they must determine the
MAC addresses. The TCP/IP suite has a protocol,
called ARP that can automatically obtain the MAC
address. ARP enables a computer to find the MAC
address of the computer that is associated with
an IP address
• Suppose you are on system 128.6.4.194 and
you want to connect to system 128.6.4.7. Your
system will first verify that 128.6.4.7 is on the
same network, so it can talk directly via
Ethernet. Then it will look up 128.6.4.7 in its
ARP table (A table mapping IP addresses to
MAC addresses), to see if it already knows the
Ethernet address. If so, it will stick on an
Ethernet header, and send the packet. But
suppose this system is not in the ARP table.
There is no way to send the packet, because
you need the Ethernet address. So it uses the
ARP protocol to send an ARP request.
 Dynamic Host Configuration protocol (DHCP)
• DHCP is a mechanism to assign unique IP
addresses to DHCP clients automatically. Under
DHCP, a computer is designated as the DHCP
server. All of the other computers on the network
- at least, those that need an IP address - will be
DHCP clients (computers that already have a
permanently set IP address don't need to
participate). The network administrator needs to
initially configure the DHCP server. Part of that
configuration process involves assigning the
DHCP server a block of IP address numbers that it
can dispense to nodes that need IP addresses.
• When a new node comes onto the network -
assuming it is capable of being a DHCP client - it
will broadcast a request for an IP address. Simply
put, the DHCP server will respond by checking its
table of address assignments, selecting the next
available address, and sending a response back to
the requesting node.
• The actual process is more complex than that, as
the requesting client must first find a DHCP
server. Also, the protocol is constructed so that a
client may negotiate with more than one DHCP
server.
 The Future IP (IPv6)
• Motivation:
• • Limited address space - at the current
growth of the Internet, all the possible
network prefixes will soon be assigned.
• • Need for Quality of service (QoS)
guarantees for emerging real-time
applications.
 Characteristics of IPv6
• IP retains many of the design features of the existing
IPv4.
• The new features of IP v6 can be grouped into 5 main
categories:
• Address size: 128-bit addresses instead of 32 bits.
• Header format: almost every field in the header has
been changed.
Extension Headers: IPv6 encodes info into separate
headers, instead of using a single header.
• QoS offerings: includes a mechanism which allows for
differentiated quality of service for applications.
• Extensible protocol: IPv6 does not specify all possible
protocol features. Instead, it allows a sender to add
additional information to a datagram. This makes IPv6
more flexible and new features can be added to the
protocol as needed.
 IPv6 Address Format
• The dotted decimal format used in IPv4
would be too cumbersome for a 128-bit address.
• To help reduce the number of characters
used to write an address, the Colon Hexadecimal
Notation is used.
• Each group of 16 bits is written in
hexadecimal with a colon separating groups. E.g.
69DC:8864:FFFF:FFFF:0:1280:8C0A:FFFF
• Zero compression can be used to further
reduce the size of the address. i.e. a sequence of
zeros is replaced with two colons: