CHAPTER 3

 Internetworking
o An internetwork is a collection of individual networks, connected by intermediate networking devices, that
functions as a single large network.
o Internetworking refers to the industry, products, and procedures that meet the challenge of creating and
administering internetworks.
o Address heterogeneity of networks
o Address rapid growth of Internet (scalability issues)
o Figure 1 illustrates some different kinds of network technologies that can be interconnected by routers and
other networking devices to create an internetwork

Figure 1 Different network technologies can be connected to create an internetwork

o Internetworking evolved as a solution to three key problems: isolated LANs, duplication of resources, and a
lack of network management.
o Isolated LANS made electronic communication between different offices or departments impossible.
o Duplication of resources meant that the same hardware and software had to be supplied to each office or
department, as did a separate support staff.
o This lack of network management meant that no centralized method of managing and troubleshooting networks
existed.
o Challenges :
- Implementing a functional internetwork is no simple task. Many challenges must be faced, especially in the
areas of connectivity, reliability, network management, and flexibility.
- The challenge when connecting various systems is to support communication between disparate
technologies. Different sites, for example, may use different types of media, or they might operate at
varying speeds.
- Another essential consideration, reliable service, must be maintained in any internetwork. Individual users
and entire organizations depend on consistent, reliable access to network resources.
- Furthermore, network management must provide centralized support and troubleshooting capabilities in an
internetwork. Configuration, security, performance, and other issues must be adequately addressed for the
internetwork to function smoothly.
- Flexibility, the final concern, is necessary for network expansion and new applications and services, among
other factors.
 Network Layer
- The Network layer, or OSI Layer 3, provides services to exchange the individual pieces of data over the
network between identified end devices.
- To accomplish this end-to-end transport, Layer 3 uses the following basic processes:
 Addressing
o If individual pieces of data are to be directed to an end device, that device must have a unique
address.
o When an address is added to a device, the device is referred to as a host.
 Routing
o During the routing through an internetwork, the packet may traverse many intermediary
devices.
o If the source and destination hosts are not connected to the same network.
o The Network layer must provide services to direct these packets to their destination host.
 o Intermediary devices that connect the networks are called routers.
o The role of the router is to select paths for and direct packets toward their destination.
 Network layer protocols
- Protocols implemented at the Network layer that carry user data include:
1. Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)
2. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)
3. Novell Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX)
4. Connectionless Network Service (CLNS)
- The Internet Protocol (IPv4 and IPv6) is the most widely-used Layer 3 data carrying protocol and will be
the focus of this course.
1. Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4)
- Each device on a network must be uniquely defined.
- The packets of the communication need to be identified with the source and destination addresses of
the two end systems
- IPv4 is 32 bits in length and difficult for human to remember. Therefore, represent IPv4 addresses
using dotted decimal format.
- 10101100.00010000.00000100.00010100 - (172.16.4.20).
- The 32 bits IP address dived into four octet separated by dot.
- The IP address has network and host part.

- IPv4 is two types --

I. Classful addressing
 Fixed number of bits for network and host portions
 IP addresses are split up into several different categories, including Class A, B, C, D
(Multicast), and E (Reserved).
 Address classes are defined, in part, based on the number of bits that make up the network
portion of the address.
 Left for the definition of individual host addresses.
 Class A addresses:
 The first octet is the network portion.
 The first bit of the first octet is always set to 0 (zero).
- Thus the first octet ranges from 1– 127, i.e.

-
Class A addresses only include IP starting from 1.x.x.x to 126.x.x.x only.
-
The IP range 127.x.x.x is reserved for loopback IP addresses.
-
The default subnet mask for Class A IP address is 255.0.0.0 which implies that Class A
addressing can have 126 networks (27-2) and 16777214 hosts (224-2).
- Class A IP address format is thus:
0NNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH
 Class B Address:
- The first two octets are the network portion.
- An IP address which belongs to class B has the first two bits in the first octet set to 10,i.e.

- Class B IP Addresses range from 128.0.x.x to 191.255.x.x. The default subnet mask for
- Class B is 255.255.x.x.
- Class B has 16384 (214) Network addresses and 65534 (216-2) Host addresses.
- Class B IP address format is: 10NNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH.HHHHHHHH
 Class C address:
- The first 3 octets are the network portion.
- The first octet of Class C IP address has its first 3 bits set to 110, that is:

- Class C IP addresses range from 192.0.0.x to 223.255.255.x. The default subnet mask for
Class C is 255.255.255.x.
- Class C gives 2097152 (221) Network addresses and 254 (28-2) Host addresses.
 - Class C IP address format is: 110NNNNN.NNNNNNNN.NNNNNNNN.HHHHHHHH
 Class D address:
- Very first four bits of the first octet in Class D IP addresses are set to 1110, giving a range of:

- Class D has IP address rage from 224.0.0.0 to 239.255.255.255. Class D is reserved for
Multicasting.
- In multicasting data is not destined for a particular host, that is why there is no need to extract
host address from the IP address, and Class D does not have any subnet mask.
 Class E address:
- This IP Class is reserved for experimental purposes only for R&D or Study.
- IP addresses in this class ranges from 240.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.254.
- Like Class D, this class too is not equipped with any subnet mask.

Sub netting
- To define the network and host portions of an address, the devices use a separate 32-bit
pattern called a subnet mask.
- Ex: 255.255.255.0 (11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000) 1 represents network portion
and 0 represents hosts.
- Routers use Subnet Mask, which is as long as the size of the network address in the IP
address.
- If the IP address in binary is ANDed with its Subnet Mask, the result yields the Network
address.
- For example, say the IP Address is 192.168.1.152 and the Subnet Mask is 255.255.255.0 then:

- This way the Subnet Mask helps extract the Network ID and the Host from an IP Address.
- It can be identified now that 192.168.1.0 is the Network number and 192.168.1.152 is the host
on that network.
II. CIDR: Classless Inter Domain Routing
- The limitation of classful allocation of address is space often wasted many
addresses, which exhausted the availability of IPv4 addresses.
- Ex: a company that had a network with 260 hosts would need to be given
a class B address with more than 65,000 addresses.
- So the system that we currently use is referred to as classless addressing.
With the classless system, address blocks appropriate to the number of
hosts are assigned to companies or organizations without regard to the
unicast class.
- So CIDR is also called Variable Length Subnet Mask (VLSM).
- We can use network prefix to represent the same thing. EX: /24
 - So the network portion of address of arbitrary length address format: a.b.c.d/x, where x is the
number of leading bits in network portion of address.
- For example, an administrator has 192.168.1.0/24 network. The suffix /24 (pronounced as
"slash 24") tells the number of bits used for network address. In this example, the
administrator has three different departments with different number of hosts. Sales department
has 100 computers, Purchase department has 50 computers, Accounts has 25 computers and
Management has 5 computers. In CIDR, the subnets are of fixed size.
- Using the same methodology the administrator cannot fulfill all the requirements of the
network.
- The following procedure shows how VLSM can be used in order to allocate department wise
IP addresses as mentioned in the example.
Step - 1

Step - 2
- Sort the requirements of IPs in descending order (Highest to Lowest).
 Sales 100
 Purchase 50
 Accounts 25
 Management 5
Step – 3
- Allocate the highest range of IPs to the highest requirement, so let's assign 192.168.1.0/25
(255.255.255.128) to the Sales department. This IP subnet with Network number 192.168.1.0
has 126 valid Host IP addresses which satisfy the requirement of the Sales department.
- The subnet mask used for this subnet has 10000000 as the last octet.
Step - 4
- Allocate the next highest range, so let's assign 192.168.1.128 /26 (255.255.255.192) to the
Purchase department. This IP subnet with Network number 192.168.1.128 has 62 valid Host
IP Addresses which can be easily assigned to all the PCs of the Purchase department.
- The subnet mask used has 11000000 in the last octet.
Step - 5
- Allocate the next highest range, i.e. Accounts. The requirement of 25 IPs can be fulfilled with
192.168.1.192 /27 (255.255.255.224) IP subnet, which contains 30 valid host IPs.
- The network number of Accounts department will be 192.168.1.192. The last octet of subnet
mask is 11100000.
Step - 6
- Allocate the next highest range to Management. The Management department contains only 5
computers. The subnet 192.168.1.224 /29 with the Mask 255.255.255.248 has exactly 6 valid
host IP addresses.
- So this can be assigned to Management. The last octet of the subnet mask will contain
11111000.
- By using VLSM, the administrator can subnet the IP subnet in such a way that least number
of IP addresses are wasted. Even after assigning IPs to every department, the administrator, in
this example, is still left with plenty of IP addresses which was not possible if he has used
CIDR.
There are a few reserved IPv4 address spaces which cannot be used on the internet.
These addresses serve special purpose and cannot be routed outside the Local Area Network.
 Private IP Addresses
- Every class of IP, (A, B & C) has some addresses reserved as Private IP addresses.
- These IPs can be used within a network, campus, company and are private to it.
 - These addresses cannot be routed on the Internet, so packets containing these private
addresses are dropped by the Routers.

- In order to communicate with the outside world, these IP addresses must have to be translated
to some public IP addresses using NAT process, or Web Proxy server can be used.
- The sole purpose to create a separate range of private addresses is to control assignment of
already-limited IPv4 address pool. By using a private address range within LAN, the
requirement of IPv4 addresses has globally decreased significantly.
- It has also helped delaying the IPv4 address exhaustion.
- IP class, while using private address range, can be chosen as per the size and requirement of
the organization.
- Larger organizations may choose class A private IP address range where smaller
organizations may opt for class C.
- These IP addresses can be further sub-netted and assigned to departments within an
organization.
 Loopback IP Addresses
- The IP address range 127.0.0.0 – 127.255.255.255 is reserved for loopback, i.e. a Host’s self-
address, also known as localhost address.
- This loopback IP address is managed entirely by and within the operating system.
- Loopback addresses enable the Server and Client processes on a single system to
communicate with each other.
- When a process creates a packet with destination address as loopback address, the operating
system loops it back to itself without having any interference of NIC.
- Data sent on loopback is forwarded by the operating system to a virtual network interface
within operating system.
- This address is mostly used for testing purposes like client-server architecture on a single
machine.
- Other than that, if a host machine can successfully ping 127.0.0.1 or any IP from loopback
range, implies that the TCP/IP software stack on the machine is successfully loaded and
working.
 Link-local Addresses
- In case a host is not able to acquire an IP address from the DHCP server and it has not been
assigned any IP address manually, the host can assign itself an IP address from a range of
reserved Link-local addresses. Link-local address ranges from 169.254.0.0 –
169.254.255.255.
- Assume a network segment where all systems are configured to acquire IP addresses from a
DHCP server connected to the same network segment.
- If the DHCP server is not available, no host on the segment will be able to communicate to
any other.
- Windows (98 or later), and Mac OS (8.0 or later) supports this functionality of self-
configuration of Link-local IP address.
- In absence of DHCP server, every host machine randomly chooses an IP address from the
above mentioned range and then checks to ascertain by means of ARP, if some other host also
has not configured itself with the same IP address.
- Once all hosts are using link local addresses of same range, they can communicate with each
other.
- These IP addresses cannot help system to communicate when they do not belong to the same
physical or logical segment.
- These IPs are also not routable.
2. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)
- IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) has redesigned IP addresses to mitigate the drawbacks of
IPv4.
- The new IP address is version 6 which is 128-bit address, by which every single inch of the earth can
be given millions of IP addresses.
- Today majority of devices running on Internet are using IPv4 and it is not possible to shift them to
IPv6 in the coming days. There are mechanisms provided by IPv6, by which IPv4 and IPv6 can co-
exist unless the Internet entirely shifts to IPv6:
  Dual IP Stack
 Tunneling (6to4 and 4to6)
 NAT Protocol Translation
 Types of Communication
In an IPv4 network, the hosts can communicate one of three different 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 using broadcast address.
- Broadcast transmission is used for the location of special services/devices for which the address is not
known or when a host needs to provide information to all the hosts on the network.
Multicast:
- It is designed to conserve the bandwidth of the IPv4 network. It reduces traffic by allowing a host to
send a single packet to a selected set of hosts
- Ex of multicast transmission: Video and audio broadcasts, Routing information exchange by routing
protocols, Distribution of software, News feeds
- Multicast clients need to subscribe to a multicast group using multicast address (224.0.0.0 to
239.255.255.255)