Variable Length Subnet Mask - Solved - Example
Variable Length Subnet Mask - Solved - Example
Variable Length Subnet Mask (VLSM) extends classic sub-netting. VLSM is a process of
breaking down subnets into the smaller subnets, according to the need of individual networks. In
Example Company have requirement of 6 subnets and 160 host addresses. With VSLM you can
fulfill this requirement with single class C address space.
VLSM Sub-netting
Find the largest segment. Segment which need largest number of hosts address.
Do sub-netting to fulfill the requirement of largest segment.
Assign the appropriate subnet mask for the largest segment.
For second largest segments, take one of these newly created subnets and apply a
different, more appropriate, subnet mask to it.
Assign the appropriate subnet mask for the second largest segment.
Repeat this process until the last network.
VLSM Example
Now you know the steps of VLSM Sub-netting. Let's understand it with above example. Our
company requires 6 subnets and 160 hosts.
Step 1:- Oder all segments according the hosts requirement (Largest to smallest).
1 Development 74
2 Production 52
3 `Administrative 28
4 Wan link 1 2
5 Wan link 2 2
`6 Wan link 3 2
Step 2:- Do sub-netting for largest segment. Our largest segment needs 74 host addresses. /25
provide us two subnets with 126 hosts in each subnet.
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Subnet Subnet 1 Subnet 2
Network ID 192.168.1.0 192.168.1.128
First host address 192.168.1.1 192.168.1.129
Last host address 192.168.1.126 192.168.1.254
Broadcast ID 192.168.1.127 192.168.1.255
Step 3:- Assign subnet mask to the largest segment. As you can see in above table, sub-net 1
fulfills our largest segment requirement. Assign it to our segment.
Segment Development
Requirement 74
CIDR /25
Subnet mask 255.255.255.128
Network ID 192.168.1.0
First hosts 192.168.1.1
Last hosts 192.168.1.126
Broadcast ID 192.168.1.127
Step 4:- Do sub-netting for second largest segment from next available subnet. Next segment
requires 52 host addresses. Sub-netting of /25 has given us two subnets with 126 hosts in each,
from that we have assigned first subnet to development segment. Second segment is available;
we would do sub-netting of this.
192.168.1.0/26
We cannot use subnet 1 and subnet 2 ( address from 0 to 127 ) as they are already assigned to
development department. We can assign subnet 3 to our production department.
Segment Production
Requirement 52
CIDR /26
Subnet mask 255.255.255.192
Network ID 192.168.1.128
First hosts 192.168.1.129
Last hosts 192.168.1.190
Broadcast ID 192.168.1.191
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Step 5 :- Our next segment requires 28 hosts. From above subnetting we have subnet 3 and
subnet 4 available. Do subnetting for the requirement of 28 hosts.
192.168.1.0/27
Segment Administrative
Requirement 28
CIDR /27
Subnet mask 255.255.255.224
Network ID 192.168.1.192
First hosts 192.168.1.193
Last hosts 192.168.1.222
Broadcast ID 192.168.1.223
Step 6 :- Our last three segments require 2 hosts per subnet. Do subnetting for these.
192.168.1.0/30
0,4,8,12,16,20,24,28,32,36,40,44,48,52,56,60,64,68,72,76,80,84,88,92,96,100,104,
108,112,116,120,124,128,132,136,140,144,148,152,156,160,164,168,172,176,180,
184,188,192,196,200,204,208,212,216,220, 224,228,232,236,240,244,248,252,256
From these subnets, subnet 1 to subnet 56 ( Address from 0 - 220) are already assigned to
previous segments. We can use 224,228, and 232 for wan links.
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Broadcast ID 227 231 235
Wan Link 2
Wan Link 1
Wan link 3
We have assigned IP addresses to all segments; still we have 20 addresses available. This is the
magic of VLSM.
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