IP ADDRESSING ARCHITECTURE
Table Of Contents
General IP Addressing Architecture
Forms of IP Addresses
Special forms of IP Addresses
IP Addresses assignment example
IP Subnetting
IP Subnetting example
IP - The Next Generation (IPng - IPv6)
IPng - IPv6 addressing
Upgrading IPv4 to IPng - IPv6
General IP Addressing Architecture
IP addresses consist of a 32-bit value.
Usually, for convenience, it is presented in DECIMAL DOT NOTATION:
4 octets (bytes) separated by a dot.
Each physical network has its own unique network address.
Each host has its own unique address.
Routers or gateways have one or more addresses
(depended on the of links they have)
An IP address is therefore built of a network and a host
identifications.
Forms of IP Addresses
There are five forms of IP addresses:
Class A :126 networks, each can have up to (16M-2) nodes.
(1.0.0.0 - 126.0.0.0)
Class B: (16K-2) networks, each can have up to (64K-2) nodes
(127.0.0.0 - 191.255.0.0)
Class C: (2M-2) networks, each can have up to 254 nodes.
(192.0.0.0 - 223.255.255.0)
Class D: a multicast address.
(224.0.0.0 - 240.0.0.0)
Class E: reserved for future use.
(241.0.0.0 - 248.0.0.0)
For example:
The address (binary) - 10000000 00000111 00001111 00000001
has the DECIMAL DOT NOTATION: 128.7.15.1
It belongs to Class B addresses.
Its Network-id is: 128.7
Its Host-id is: 15.1
Special forms of INTERNET Addresses
0.0.0.0 - This host.
0.host_number - host on this net.
255.255.255.255 - Limited broadcast (local net).
net_number.255 - Directed broadcast for the specified net.
127.anything - Loopback (should never appear on the net).
IP Addresses assignment example
IP Subnetting
Subnetting is a Technique used to allow a single IP network
address to span multiple physical networks.
IP hosts should support subnetting.
Subnetting is done by using some of the bits of the host-id part
of the IP address as a physical network identifier.
The subnet mask is used to determine the bits of the network
identifier.
All hosts on the same network should have the same subnet mask.
An example of Subnetting:
The Class B network 128.10.0.0 can be subnetted using the first
8 bits of the host-id, to span 254 different physical networks.
The subnet mask for this case is 255.255.255.0
The subnetworks are: 128.10.1.0, 128.10.2.0, ..., 128.10.254.0 .
Each of the subnetworks can have up to 254 different hosts:
128.10.XXX.1, 128.10.XXX.2, ..., 128.10.XXX.254 .
If there is a need for less physical nets and more hosts in each
one, less host-id bits can be used for subnetting. For example:
With the subnet mask 255.255.254.0, 126 different subnets are
available with up to 510 hosts in each one.
Many Class A and B networks do not contain as many hosts as
they could. This situation causes a lot of address space waste.
Subnetting better utilizes the address space by dividing these
big networks to smaller ones.
IP Subnetting example
Dividing a single Class B network into two subnetworks:
All Gateways except G (Which is physically interconnected between
the networks) route as if there was a single physical network.
IP - The Next Generation (IPng - IPv6)
The growing number of INTERNET hosts causes a shortage in IP
addresses and will eventually consume the entire address space.
The theoretical address space size (2^32 nodes) is largely wasted
due to assignment inefficiencies.
Dividing the address space into classes (A, B and C) had its own
contribution to the inefficiency of addresses assignment.
Changing the IP addressing scheme is a matter concerning all
INTERNET users and is an opportunity for providing additional
functionality to the IP.
The new version of IP is often referred to as IPng:
"INTERNET Protocol: The Next Generation".
Most INTERNET users agreed IPng should have a hierarchical
address structure. This new address structure should be large
enough to meet the needs of the INTERNET community for a very
long time.
There were several proposals for IPng. The most likely to become
a standard were: "Common Architecture for the INTERNET" (CATNIP)
"Simple INTERNET Protocol Plus" (SIPP), and "The TCP/UDP Over
CLNP-Addressed Networks (TUBA) proposals.
The guidelines for choosing one proposals over the others were:
* Current address assignment policies should not be changed.
* There is no need to reclaim assigned network numbers.
* There is no need to renumber most of the INTERNET
Eventually the "Simple INTERNET Protocol Plus (SIPP) Spec.
(128 bit ver)" was adopted as the basis for IPng.
IPng was assigned the name IPv6.
IPng - IPv6 addressing
IPng offers a larger address space for the INTERNET users.
The IP address size will be increased from 32 bits to 128 bits.
This change will allow a much bigger number of nodes than is
available today, with more levels of addressing hierarchy,
and simpler auto-configuration of addresses.
An address size of 128 bits is large enough to support a huge
number of nodes even with the inefficiency of address assignment.
The IP header will be changed. Some fields will be removed
in order to keep the overhead low (in spite of increasing the
number of address bits). Thus, even though the IPv6 addresses are
four times longer than the IPv4 addresses, the IPv6 header is
only twice the size of the IPv4 header.
IPv6 will have a new type of address: "Cluster address", which
will identify topological regions.
A new function in IPv6 is source routing, which together with
Cluster addresses will allow nodes to control their routing in
a more precise way.
Upgrading IPv4 to IPng - IPv6
The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will be simple and flexible.
The upgrade will be Incremental: Existing IPv4 hosts and Routers
may be upgraded to IPv6 and new hosts and Routers can be
installed independently.
When existing IPv4 hosts or Routers are upgraded, they can
continue to use their current address.
The start-up costs are low and little work is needed to upgrade
existing systems to IPv6.
This document was written by Danny Greenberg & Israel Ben-Shahar
for the "Comprehensive topics in computer networks - 2" course,
lectured by Dr. Debby Koren
Studied at Israel Institute of technology (IIT).
IPng information is taken from RFC1752.
Final version: 25-Feb-1995
This talk will cover the basics of IP addressing and subnetting.
Topics covered will include:
• What is an IP Address?
• What are Classes?
• What is a Network Address?
• What are Subnet Masks and Subnet Addresses?
• How are Subnet Masks defined and used?
• How can all this be applied?
• What is CIDR?
• How can I get more information?
An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a unique identifier for a node or host connection on an IP
network. An IP address is a 32 bit binary number usually represented as 4 decimal values, each
representing 8 bits, in the range 0 to 255 (known as octets) separated by decimal points. This is
known as "dotted decimal" notation.
Example: 140.179.220.200
It is sometimes useful to view the values in their binary form.
140 .179 .220 .200
10001100.10110011.11011100.11001000
Every IP address consists of two parts, one identifying the network and one identifying the node.
The Class of the address and the subnet mask determine which part belongs to the network address
and which part belongs to the node address.
Address Classes
There are 5 different address classes. You can determine which class any IP address is in by
examining the first 4 bits of the IP address.
• Class A addresses begin with 0xxx, or 1 to 126 decimal.
• Class B addresses begin with 10xx, or 128 to 191 decimal.
• Class C addresses begin with 110x, or 192 to 223 decimal.
• Class D addresses begin with 1110, or 224 to 239 decimal.
• Class E addresses begin with 1111, or 240 to 254 decimal.
Addresses beginning with 01111111, or 127 decimal, are reserved for loopback and for internal
testing on a local machine. [You can test this: you should always be able to ping 127.0.0.1, which
points to yourself] Class D addresses are reserved for multicasting. Class E addresses are reserved
for future use. They should not be used for host addresses.
Now we can see how the Class determines, by default, which part of the IP address belongs to the
network (N) and which part belongs to the node (n).
• Class A -- NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn
• Class B -- NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn.nnnnnnnn
• Class C -- NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.nnnnnnnn
In the example, 140.179.220.200 is a Class B address so by default the Network part of the address
(also known as the Network Address) is defined by the first two octets (140.179.x.x) and the node
part is defined by the last 2 octets (x.x.220.200).
In order to specify the network address for a given IP address, the node section is set to all "0"s. In
our example, 140.179.0.0 specifies the network address for 140.179.220.200. When the node
section is set to all "1"s, it specifies a broadcast that is sent to all hosts on the network.
140.179.255.255 specifies the example broadcast address. Note that this is true regardless of the
length of the node section.
Private Subnets
There are three IP network addresses reserved for private networks. The addresses are 10.0.0.0/8,
172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16. They can be used by anyone setting up internal IP networks,
such as a lab or home LAN behind a NAT or proxy server or a router. It is always safe to use these
because routers on the Internet will never forward packets coming from these addresses. These
addresses are defined in RFC 1918.
Subnetting an IP Network can be done for a variety of reasons, including organization, use of
different physical media (such as Ethernet, FDDI, WAN, etc.), preservation of address space, and
security. The most common reason is to control network traffic. In an Ethernet network, all nodes
on a segment see all the packets transmitted by all the other nodes on that segment. Performance
can be adversely affected under heavy traffic loads, due to collisions and the resulting
retransmissions. A router is used to connect IP networks to minimize the amount of traffic each
segment must receive.
Subnet Masking
Applying a subnet mask to an IP address allows you to identify the network and node parts of the
address. The network bits are represented by the 1s in the mask, and the node bits are represented
by the 0s. Performing a bitwise logical AND operation between the IP address and the subnet mask
results in the Network Address or Number.
For example, using our test IP address and the default Class B subnet mask, we get:
10001100.10110011.11110000.11001000 140.179.240.200 Class B IP Address
11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 255.255.000.000 Default Class B
Subnet Mask
--------------------------------------------------------
10001100.10110011.00000000.00000000 140.179.000.000 Network Address
Default subnet masks:
• Class A - 255.0.0.0 - 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000
• Class B - 255.255.0.0 - 11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000
• Class C - 255.255.255.0 - 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000
Additional bits can be added to the default subnet mask for a given Class to further subnet, or break
down, a network. When a bitwise logical AND operation is performed between the subnet mask and
IP address, the result defines the Subnet Address (also called the Network Address or Network
Number). There are some restrictions on the subnet address. Node addresses of all "0"s and all "1"s
are reserved for specifying the local network (when a host does not know it's network address) and
all hosts on the network (broadcast address), respectively. This also applies to subnets. A subnet
address cannot be all "0"s or all "1"s. This also implies that a 1 bit subnet mask is not allowed. This
restriction is required because older standards enforced this restriction. Recent standards that allow
use of these subnets have superceded these standards, but many "legacy" devices do not support the
newer standards. If you are operating in a controlled environment, such as a lab, you can safely use
these restricted subnets.
To calculate the number of subnets or nodes, use the formula (2n-2) where n = number of bits in
either field, and 2n represents 2 raised to the nth power. Multiplying the number of subnets by the
number of nodes available per subnet gives you the total number of nodes available for your class
and subnet mask. Also, note that although subnet masks with non-contiguous mask bits are allowed,
they are not recommended.
Example:
10001100.10110011.11011100.11001000 140.179.220.200 IP Address
11111111.11111111.11100000.00000000 255.255.224.000 Subnet Mask
--------------------------------------------------------
10001100.10110011.11000000.00000000 140.179.192.000 Subnet Address
10001100.10110011.11011111.11111111 140.179.223.255 Broadcast Address
In this example a 3 bit subnet mask was used. There are 6 (23-2) subnets available with this size
mask (remember that subnets with all 0's and all 1's are not allowed). Each subnet has 8190 (213-2)
nodes. Each subnet can have nodes assigned to any address between the Subnet address and the
Broadcast address. This gives a total of 49,140 nodes for the entire class B address subnetted this
way. Notice that this is less than the 65,534 nodes an unsubnetted class B address would have.
You can calculate the Subnet Address by performing a bitwise logical AND operation between the
IP address and the subnet mask, then setting all the host bits to 0s. Similarly, you can calculate the
Broadcast Address for a subnet by performing the same logical AND between the IP address and
the subnet mask, then setting all the host bits to 1s. That is how these numbers are derived in the
example above.
Subnetting always reduces the number of possible nodes for a given network. There are complete
subnet tables available here for Class A, Class B and Class C. These tables list all the possible
subnet masks for each class, along with calculations of the number of networks, nodes and total
hosts for each subnet.
Here is another, more detailed, example. Say you are assigned a Class C network number of
200.133.175.0 (apologies to anyone who may actually own this domain address). You want to
utilize this network across multiple small groups within an organization. You can do this by
subnetting that network with a subnet address.
We will break this network into 14 subnets of 14 nodes each. This will limit us to 196 nodes on the
network instead of the 254 we would have without subnetting, but gives us the advantages of traffic
isolation and security. To accomplish this, we need to use a subnet mask 4 bits long.
Recall that the default Class C subnet mask is
255.255.255.0 (11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 binary)
Extending this by 4 bits yields a mask of
255.255.255.240 (11111111.11111111.11111111.11110000 binary)
This gives us 16 possible network numbers, 2 of which cannot be used:
Subnet bits Network Number Node Addresses Broadcast Address
0000 200.133.175.0 Reserved None
0001 200.133.175.16 .17 thru .30 200.133.175.31
0010 200.133.175.32 .33 thru .46 200.133.175.47
0011 200.133.175.48 .49 thru .62 200.133.175.63
0100 200.133.175.64 .65 thru .78 200.133.175.79
0101 200.133.175.80 .81 thru .94 200.133.175.95
0110 200.133.175.96 .97 thru .110 200.133.175.111
0111 200.133.175.112 .113 thru .126 200.133.175.127
1000 200.133.175.128 .129 thru .142 200.133.175.143
1001 200.133.175.144 .145 thru .158 200.133.175.159
1010 200.133.175.160 .161 thru .174 200.133.175.175
1011 200.133.175.176 .177 thru .190 200.133.175.191
1100 200.133.175.192 .193 thru .206 200.133.175.207
1101 200.133.175.208 .209 thru .222 200.133.175.223
1110 200.133.175.224 .225 thru .238 200.133.175.239
1111 200.133.175.240 Reserved None
Now that you understand "classful" IP Subnetting principals, you can forget them ;). The reason is
CIDR -- Classless InterDomain Routing. CIDR was invented several years ago to keep the internet
from running out of IP addresses. The "classful" system of allocating IP addresses can be very
wasteful; anyone who could reasonably show a need for more that 254 host addresses was given a
Class B address block of 65533 host addresses. Even more wasteful were companies and
organizations that were allocated Class A address blocks, which contain over 16 Million host
addresses! Only a tiny percentage of the allocated Class A and Class B address space has ever been
actually assigned to a host computer on the Internet.
People realized that addresses could be conserved if the class system was eliminated. By accurately
allocating only the amount of address space that was actually needed, the address space crisis could
be avoided for many years. This was first proposed in 1992 as a scheme called Supernetting.
Under supernetting, the classful subnet masks are extended so that a network address and subnet
mask could, for example, specify multiple Class C subnets with one address. For example, If I
needed about 1000 addresses, I could supernet 4 Class C networks together:
192.60.128.0 (11000000.00111100.10000000.00000000) Class C subnet address
192.60.129.0 (11000000.00111100.10000001.00000000) Class C subnet address
192.60.130.0 (11000000.00111100.10000010.00000000) Class C subnet address
192.60.131.0 (11000000.00111100.10000011.00000000) Class C subnet address
--------------------------------------------------------
192.60.128.0 (11000000.00111100.10000000.00000000) Supernetted Subnet address
255.255.252.0 (11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000) Subnet Mask
192.60.131.255 (11000000.00111100.10000011.11111111) Broadcast address
In this example, the subnet 192.60.128.0 includes all the addresses from 192.60.128.0 to
192.60.131.255. As you can see in the binary representation of the subnet mask, the Network
portion of the address is 22 bits long, and the host portion is 10 bits long.
Under CIDR, the subnet mask notation is reduced to a simplified shorthand. Instead of spelling out
the bits of the subnet mask, it is simply listed as the number of 1s bits that start the mask. In the
above example, instead of writing the address and subnet mask as
192.60.128.0, Subnet Mask 255.255.252.0
the network address would be written simply as:
192.60.128.0/22
which indicates starting address of the network, and number of 1s bits (22) in the network portion
of the address. If you look at the subnet mask in binary (11111111.11111111.11111100.00000000),
you can easily see how this notation works.
The use of a CIDR notated address is the same as for a Classful address. Classful addresses can
easily be written in CIDR notation (Class A = /8, Class B = /16, and Class C = /24)
It is currently almost impossible for an individual or company to be allocated their own IP address
blocks. You will simply be told to get them from your ISP. The reason for this is the ever-growing
size of the internet routing table. Just 10 years ago, there were less than 5000 network routes in the
entire Internet. Today, there are over 100,000. Using CIDR, the biggest ISPs are allocated large
chunks of address space (usually with a subnet mask of /19 or even smaller); the ISP's customers
(often other, smaller ISPs) are then allocated networks from the big ISP's pool. That way, all the big
ISP's customers (and their customers, and so on) are accessible via 1 network route on the Internet.
But I digress.
It is expected that CIDR will keep the Internet happily in IP addresses for the next few years at
least. After that, IPv6, with 128 bit addresses, will be needed. Under IPv6, even sloppy address
allocation would comfortably allow a billion unique IP addresses for every person on earth! The
complete and gory details of CIDR are documented in RFC1519, which was released in September
of 1993.
# bits Subnet Mask CIDR # Subnets # Hosts Nets * Hosts
2 255.192.0.0 /10 2 4194302 8388604
3 255.224.0.0 /11 6 2097150 12582900
4 255.240.0.0 /12 14 1048574 14680036
5 255.248.0.0 /13 30 524286 15728580
6 255.252.0.0 /14 62 262142 16252804
7 255.254.0.0 /15 126 131070 16514820
8 255.255.0.0 /16 254 65534 16645636
9 255.255.128.0 /17 510 32766 16710660
10 255.255.192.0 /18 1022 16382 16742404
11 255.255.224.0 /19 2046 8190 16756740
12 255.255.240.0 /20 4094 4094 16760836
13 255.255.248.0 /21 8190 2046 16756740
14 255.255.252.0 /22 16382 1022 16742404
15 255.255.254.0 /23 32766 510 16710660
16 255.255.255.0 /24 65534 254 16645636
17 255.255.255.128 /25 131070 126 16514820
18 255.255.255.192 /26 262142 62 16252804
19 255.255.255.224 /27 524286 30 15728580
20 255.255.255.240 /28 1048574 14 14680036
21 255.255.255.248 /29 2097150 6 12582900
22 255.255.255.252 /30 4194302 2 8388604
# bits Subnet Mask CIDR # Subnets # Hosts Nets * Hosts
2 255.255.192.0 /18 2 16382 32764
3 255.255.224.0 /19 6 8190 49140
4 255.255.240.0 /20 14 4094 57316
5 255.255.248.0 /21 30 2046 61380
6 255.255.252.0 /22 62 1022 63364
7 255.255.254.0 /23 126 510 64260
8 255.255.255.0 /24 254 254 64516
9 255.255.255.128 /25 510 126 64260
10 255.255.255.192 /26 1022 62 63364
11 255.255.255.224 /27 2046 30 61380
12 255.255.255.240 /28 4094 14 57316
13 255.255.255.248 /29 8190 6 49140
14 255.255.255.252 /30 16382 2 32764
# bits Subnet Mask CIDR # Subnets # Hosts Nets * Hosts
2 255.255.255.192 /26 2 62 124
3 255.255.255.224 /27 6 30 180
4 255.255.255.240 /28 14 14 196
5 255.255.255.248 /29 30 6 180
6 255.255.255.252 /30 62 2 124
This page will provide a brief review and explanation of the common logical bitwise operations
AND, OR, XOR (Exclusive OR) and NOT. Logical operations are performed between two data bits
(except for NOT). Bits can be either "1" or "0", and these operations are essential to performing
digital math operations.
In the "truth tables" below, the input bits are in bold, and the results are plain.
AND
The logical AND operation compares 2 bits and if they are both "1", then the result is "1",
otherwise, the result is "0".
01
000
101
OR
The logical OR operation compares 2 bits and if either or both bits are "1", then the result is "1",
otherwise, the result is "0".
01
001
111
XOR
The logical XOR (Exclusive OR) operation compares 2 bits and if exactly one of them is "1" (i.e., if
they are different values), then the result is "1"; otherwise (if the bits are the same), the result is "0".
01
001
110
NOT
The logical NOT operation simply changes the value of a single bit. If it is a "1", the result is "0"; if
it is a "0", the result is "1". Note that this operation is different in that instead of comparing two bits,
it is acting on a single bit.
01
10
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Requests for Comments (RFCs):
• Overall RFC Index
• RFC 1918 - Address Allocation for Private Internets
• RFC 1219 - On the Assignment of Subnet Numbers
• RFC 950 - Internet standard subnetting procedure
• RFC 940 - Toward an Internet standard scheme for subnetting
• RFC 932 - Subnetwork addressing scheme
• RFC 917 - Internet subnets
Newsgroups of interest:
• comp.protocols.tcpip (or on Google)
• comp.protocols.tcpip.domains (or on Google)
Other Stuff:
• Protocols.com
• Internic
• Zen and the Art of the Internet
• Glossary of Internet Terms
• FindTutorials.com
• Firewall.cx
