TOPIC 4

IP ADDRESSING

Introduction to IP addressing
Vinton (Vint) Cerf, along with a group of Stanford University graduates, in December 1974,
designed a networking protocol which included a 32 bit IP address, with eight bits for
identification of a network, and 24 bits for identification of a computer, which provided support
for up to 256 networks, each with up to 16,777,216 unique network addresses.
It was assumed that the network design would eventually be re-engineered for a production system,
but the architecture proved remarkably robust. Cerf has said that once the network was developed
and deployed, it just "continued to spread without stopping!"
Introduction – What is an IP Address?
Every machine with access to the Internet has a unique identifying number, called an Internet
Protocol (IP) Address. A typical IP address looks like this:
216.27.61.137
To make it easier for humans to remember, IP addresses are normally expressed in decimal format
as a "dotted decimal number” (and then as a name using DNS)
But computers communicate in binary form. Look at the same IP address in binary:
11011000.00011011.00111101.10001001
IP addresses are considered 32-bit numbers
The four numbers in an IP address are called octets, because they each have eight positions when
viewed in binary form.
Each octet can contain any value between 0 and 255, but only certain values can be allocated as
routable IP addresses
How do you convert a Binary number to a decimal number?
Take the binary number - 10001001

What is the smallest and largest numbers that can be represented by 8 bits?
Classes of IP Address
Class A IP Addresses
 This class is for very large networks, such as a major international company might have.
 IP addresses with a first octet from 1 to 126 are part of this class. E.g 110.125.1.2
 The other three octets are used to identify each host.
 This means that there are 126 Class A networks each with 16,777,216 possible hosts
 Class A networks account for half of the total available IP addresses.
 16,777,214 possible hosts/computers on a network

Note: The Network ID for a class A network is the first octet followed by 3 zeros E.g. 10.0.0.0
Class B IP Addresses
 Used for medium-sized networks. A good example is a large college campus.
 IP addresses with a first octet from 128 to 191 are part of this class. E.g. 135.122.56.1
 Class B addresses also include the second octet as part of the Net identifier. The other two
octets are used to identify each host.
 This means that there are 16,384 Class B networks each with 65,536 possible
hosts/computers
 Class B networks make up a quarter of the total available IP addresses.
 65,534 possible hosts /computers on this network

Note: The Network ID for a class B network is the first 2 octets followed by 2 zeros E.g.
172.16.0.0
Class C IP Addresses
 Class C addresses are commonly used for small to mid-size businesses.
 IP addresses with a first octet from 192 to 223 are part of this class. E.g. 192.168.1.1
 Class C addresses also include the second and third octets as part of the Net identifier.
 The last octet is used to identify each host. This means that there are 2,097,152 Class C
networks each with 254 possible hosts/computers
 Class C networks make up an eighth of the total available IP addresses.
 254 possible hosts / computers

Note: The Network ID for a class C network is the first 3 octets followed by 1 zero E.g.
192.168.1.0
IP Address Determination

Private IP Addresses
A network manager / administrator can allocate IP addresses as they see fit – there are no real
rules when routing data around private networks, although all administrators must still allocate
addresses according to the classes of IP address and appropriate subnet masks.
There are 3 main IP addresses that are always used for private networks, and are never routed
to the Internet.
 10.0.0.0 (hosts from 10.0.0.1 to 10.255.255.254)
 172.16.0.0 (hosts from 172.16.0.1 to 172.16.255.254
 192.168.1.0 (hosts from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.254)
 169.254.0.0 (Automatic Private IP Addressing – APIPA)
IP Addresses You Cannot Assign

Network Portion and Host Portion of an IP Address (IPV4)

An IP address is a hierarchical address that is made up of two parts: a network portion and a host
portion. But when determining the network portion versus the host portion, it is necessary to look,
not at the decimal value, but at the 32-bit stream. Within the 32-bit stream, a portion of the bits
makes up the network and a portion of the bits makes up the host.
The bits within the network portion of the address must be identical for all devices that reside
in the same network. The bits within the host portion of the address must be unique to identify
a specific host within a network. Regardless of whether the decimal numbers between two IPv4
addresses match up, if two hosts have the same bit-pattern in the specified network portion of the
32-bit stream, those two hosts will reside in the same network.

But how do hosts know which portion of the 32-bits is network and which is host? That 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. The subnet mask is created
by placing a binary 1 in each bit position that represents the network portion and placing a binary
0 in each bit position that represents the host portion. Note that the subnet mask does not actually
contain the network or host portion of an IPv4 address, it just tells the computer where to look
for these portions in a given IPv4 address.
Similar to IPv4 addresses, the subnet mask is represented in dotted decimal format for ease of use.
The subnet mask is configured on a host device, in conjunction with the IPv4 address, and is
required so the host can determine which network it belongs to.

Examining the Prefix Length

The prefix length is another way of expressing the subnet mask. The prefix length is the number
of bits set to 1 in the subnet mask. It is written in “slash notation”, a “/” followed by the number
of bits set to 1. For example, if the subnet mask is 255.255.255.0, there are 24 bits set to 1 in the
binary version of the subnet mask, so the prefix length is 24 bits or /24. The prefix and the subnet
mask are different ways of representing the same thing - the network portion of an address.

Networks are not always assigned a /24 prefix. Depending on the number of hosts on the network,
the prefix assigned may be different. Having a different prefix number changes the host range and
broadcast address for each network

IPv4 Network, Host and Broadcast Addresses

There are three types of addresses within the address range of each IPv4 network:

 Network address
 Host addresses
 Broadcast address

Network Address

The network address is a standard way to refer to a network. The subnet mask or the prefix length
might also be used when referring to network address. For example, it could be10.1.1.0 network,
the 10.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 network or the 10.1.1.0/24 network. All hosts in the 10.1.1.0/24
network will have the same network portion bits.

Host Address

Every end device requires a unique address to communicate on the network. In IPv4 addresses,
the values between the network address and the broadcast address can be assigned to end devices
in a network

Broadcast Address

The IPv4 broadcast address is a special address for each network that allows communication to all
the hosts in that network. To send data to all hosts in a network at once, a host can send a single
packet that is addressed to the broadcast address of the network, and each host in the network that
receives this packet will process its contents.
The broadcast address uses the highest address in the network range. This is the address in which
the bits in the host portion are all 1s. This address is also referred to as the directed broadcast.

First Host and Last Host Addresses

To ensure that all hosts within a network are assigned a unique IP address within that network
range, it is important to identify the first host address and the last host address. Hosts within a
network can be assigned IP addresses within this range

First Host Address

The host portion of the first host address will contain all 0 bits with a 1 bit for the lowest order or
right-most bit. This address is always one greater than the network address. In this example the
first host address on the 10.1.1.0/24 network is 10.1.1.1. It is common in many addressing schemes
to use the first host address for the router or default gateway address.

Last Host Address

The host portion of the last host address will contain all 1 bits with a 0 bit for the lowest order or
right-most bit. This address is always one less than the broadcast address. For example, the last
host address on the 10.1.1.0/24 network is 10.1.1.254.

Assigning Ipv4 Address To Host

There are ways of assigning IPv4 address to a host in a network
 Static assignment - the network administrator must manually configure the network
information for a host.
 Dynamic assignment-network administrator assign IP addresses for each workstation, it is
easier to have IP addresses assigned automatically. This is done using a protocol known as
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

In an IPv4 network, the hosts can communicate one of three ways:

 Unicast - The process of sending a packet from one host to an individual host
 Broadcast - The process of sending a packet from one host to all hosts in the network
 Multicast - The process of sending a packet from one host to a selected group of hosts,
possibly in different networks

IPv6 Network Addresses

IPv6 is designed to be the successor to IPv4. IPv6 has a larger 128-bit address space, providing for
340 undecillion addresses. (That is the number 340, followed by 36 zeroes.) However, IPv6 is
much more than just larger addresses. When the IETF began its development of a successor to
IPv4, it used this opportunity to fix the limitations of IPv4 and include additional enhancements.
One example is Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 (ICMPv6), which includes address
resolution and address auto-configuration not found in ICMP for IPv4 (ICMPv4). ICMPv4 and
ICMPv6 will be discussed later in this chapter.

Need for IPv6

The depletion of IPv4 address space has been the motivating factor for moving to IPv6. As Africa,
Asia and other areas of the world become more connected to the Internet, there are not enough
IPv4 addresses to accommodate this growth. On Monday, January 31, 2011, IANA allocated the
last two /8 IPv4 address blocks to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs). Various projections
show that all five RIRs will have run out of IPv4 addresses between 2015 and 2020. At that point,
the remaining IPv4 addresses will have been allocated to ISPs.

IPv4 has theoretical maximum of 4.3 billion addresses. RFC 1918 private addresses in combination
with Network Address Translation (NAT) have been instrumental in slowing the depletion of IPv4
address space. NAT has limitations that severely impede peer-to-peer communications.

IPv4 and IPv6 Coexistence

There is not a single date to move to IPv6. For the foreseeable future, both IPv4 and IPv6 will
coexist. The transition is expected to take years. The IETF has created various protocols and tools
to help network administrators migrate their networks to IPv6. The migration techniques can be
divided into three categories:

 Dual Stack – dual stack allows IPv4 and IPv6 to coexist on the same network. Dual stack
devices run both IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks simultaneously.

 Tunneling – tunneling is a method of transporting an IPv6 packet over an IPv4 network.

The IPv6 packet is encapsulated inside an IPv4 packet, similar to other types of data.

 Translation – Network Address Translation 64 (NAT64) allows IPv6-enabled devices to

communicate with IPv4-enabled devices using a translation technique similar to NAT for
IPv4. An IPv6 packet is translated to an IPv4 packet, and vice versa.