IPV4

ADDRESSING
 IPv4 – Overview

• This era is said to be the era of computers.

Computers have significantly changed the way
we live.

• A computing device when connected to other

computing device(s) enables us to share data
and information at lightning fast speed.
• What is Network?
• A Network in the world of computers is said to
be a collection of interconnected hosts, via
some shared media which can be wired or
wireless.
• A computer network enables its hosts to share
and exchange data and information over the
media. Network can be a Local Area Network
spanned across an office or Metro Area
Network spanned across a city or Wide Area
Network which can be spanned across cities
and provinces.
• A computer network can be as simple as two
PCs connected together via a single copper
cable or it can be grown up to the complexity
where every computer in this world is
connected to every other, called the Internet.

• A network then includes more and more

components to reach its ultimate goal of data
exchange. Below is a brief description of the
components involved in computer network −
• Hosts − Hosts are said to be situated at
ultimate end of the network, i.e. a host is a
source of information and another host will be
the destination. Information flows end to end
between hosts. A host can be a user’s PC, an
internet Server, a database server etc.

• Media − If wired, then it can be copper cable,

fiber optic cable, and coaxial cable. If wireless,
it can be free-to-air radio frequency or some
special wireless band. Wireless frequencies
can be used to interconnect remote sites too.
• Hub − A hub is a multiport repeater and it is
used to connect hosts in a LAN segment.
Because of low throughputs hubs are now
rarely used.

• Hub works on Layer-1 (Physical Layer) of OSI

Model.
• Switch − A Switch is a multiport bridge and is
used to connect hosts in a LAN segment.
Switches are much faster than Hubs and
operate on wire speed. Switch works on Layer-
2 (Data Link Layer), but Layer-3 (Network
Layer) switches are also available.

• Router − A router is Layer-3 (Network Layer)

device which makes routing decisions for the
data/information sent for some remote
destination. Routers make the core of any
interconnected network and the Internet.
• Gateways − A software or combination of
software and hardware put together, works
for exchanging data among networks which
are using different protocols for sharing data.

• Firewall − Software or combination of

software and hardware, used to protect users
data from unintended recipients on the
network/internet.

• All components in a network ultimately serve

the hosts.
 Host Addressing

• Communication between hosts can happen

only if they can identify each other on the
network.

• In a single collision domain (where every

packet sent on the segment by one host is
heard by every other host) hosts can
communicate directly via MAC address.
• MAC address is a factory coded 48-bits
hardware address which can also uniquely
identify a host.

• But if a host wants to communicate with a

remote host, i.e. not in the same segment or
logically not connected, then some means of
addressing is required to identify the remote
host uniquely.

• A logical address is given to all hosts connected

to Internet and this logical address is
called Internet Protocol Address.
 IPv4 - OSI Model

• The International Standard Organization has a

well-defined model for Communication
Systems known as Open System
Interconnection, or the OSI Model.

• This layered model is a conceptualized view of

how one system should communicate with the
other, using various protocols defined in each
layer.
• Further, each layer is designated to a well-
defined part of communication system.

• For example, the Physical layer defines all the

components of physical nature, i.e. wires,
frequencies, pulse codes, voltage transmission
etc. of a communication system.
The OSI Model has the following seven layers −
• Application Layer (Layer-7) − This is where the
user application sits that needs to transfer data
between or among hosts. For example − HTTP,
file transfer application (FTP) and electronic mail
etc.
• Presentation Layer (Layer-6) − This layer helps to
understand data representation in one form on a
host to other host in their native representation.
Data from the sender is converted to on-the-wire
data (general standard format) and at the
receiver’s end it is converted to the native
representation of the receiver.
• Session Layer (Layer-5) − This layer provides session
management capabilities between hosts. For example,
if some host needs a password verification for access
and if credentials are provided then for that session
password verification does not happen again.
• This layer can assist in synchronization, dialog control
and critical operation management (e.g., an online
bank transaction).

• Transport Layer (Layer-4) − This layer provides end to

end data delivery among hosts. This layer takes data
from the above layer and breaks it into smaller units
called Segments and then gives it to the Network layer
for transmission.
• Network Layer (Layer-3) − This layer helps to uniquely
identify hosts beyond the subnets and defines the path
which the packets will follow or be routed to reach the
destination.

• Data Link Layer (Layer-2) − This layer takes the raw

transmission data (signal, pulses etc.) from the Physical
Layer and makes Data Frames, and sends that to the
upper layer and vice versa. This layer also checks any
transmission errors and sorts it out accordingly.

• Physical Layer (Layer-1) − This layer deals with hardware

technology and actual communication mechanism such
as signaling, voltage, cable type and length, etc.
• Network Layer
• The network layer is responsible for carrying data
from one host to another. It provides means to
allocate logical addresses to hosts, and identify
them uniquely using the same.

• Network layer takes data units from Transport Layer

and cuts them in to smaller unit called Data Packet.

• Network layer defines the data path, the packets

should follow to reach the destination. Routers work
on this layer and provides mechanism to route data
to its destination.
 IPv4 - TCP/IP Model

• A majority of the internet uses a protocol suite

called the Internet Protocol Suite also known
as the TCP/IP protocol suite.

• This suite is a combination of protocols which

encompasses a number of different protocols
for different purpose and need.
• Because the two major protocols in this suites
are TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and IP
(Internet Protocol), this is commonly termed
as TCP/IP Protocol suite.

• This protocol suite has its own reference

model which it follows over the internet.

• In contrast with the OSI model, this model of

protocols contains less layers.
 Figure − Comparative depiction of OSI and TCP/IP
Reference Models
• This model is indifferent to the actual hardware
implementation, i.e. the physical layer of OSI
Model.

• This is why this model can be implemented on

almost all underlying technologies. Transport and
Internet layers correspond to the same peer layers.

• All three top layers of OSI Model are compressed

together in single Application layer of TCP/IP Model.
• Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4)
• Internet Protocol is one of the major protocols in
the TCP/IP protocols suite.

• This protocol works at the network layer of the

OSI model and at the Internet layer of the TCP/IP
model.

• Thus this protocol has the responsibility of

identifying hosts based upon their logical
addresses and to route data among them over
the underlying network.
• IP provides a mechanism to uniquely identify
hosts by an IP addressing scheme.

• IP uses best effort delivery, i.e. it does not

guarantee that packets would be delivered to
the destined host, but it will do its best to reach
the destination.

• Internet Protocol version 4 uses 32-bit logical

address.
• IPv4 - Packet Structure

• Internet Protocol being a layer-3 protocol (OSI)

takes data Segments from layer-4 (Transport)
and divides it into packets.

• IP packet encapsulates data unit received from

above layer and add to its own header
information.
• The encapsulated data is referred to as IP
Payload.

• IP header contains all the necessary information

to deliver the packet at the other end.
• IP header includes many relevant information including
Version Number, which, in this context, is 4. Other details are
as follows −

• Version − Version no. of Internet Protocol used (e.g. IPv4).

• IHL − Internet Header Length; Length of entire IP header.

• DSCP − Differentiated Services Code Point; this is Type of

Service.

• ECN − Explicit Congestion Notification; It carries information

about the congestion seen in the route.

• Total Length − Length of entire IP Packet (including IP header

and IP Payload).
• Identification − If IP packet is fragmented during the transmission,
all the fragments contain same identification number. to identify
original IP packet they belong to.

• Flags − As required by the network resources, if IP Packet is too

large to handle, these ‘flags’ tells if they can be fragmented or not.
In this 3-bit flag, the MSB is always set to ‘0’.

• Fragment Offset − This offset tells the exact position of the

fragment in the original IP Packet.

• Time to Live − To avoid looping in the network, every packet is sent

with some TTL value set, which tells the network how many
routers (hops) this packet can cross.

• At each hop, its value is decremented by one and when the value
reaches zero, the packet is discarded.
• Protocol − Tells the Network layer at the destination host, to which Protocol
this packet belongs to, i.e. the next level Protocol. For example protocol
number of ICMP is 1, TCP is 6 and UDP is 17.

• Header Checksum − This field is used to keep checksum value of entire header
which is then used to check if the packet is received error-free.

• Source Address − 32-bit address of the Sender (or source) of the packet.

• Destination Address − 32-bit address of the Receiver (or destination) of the

packet.

• Options − This is optional field, which is used if the value of IHL is greater than
5. These options may contain values for options such as Security, Record
Route, Time Stamp, etc.
• IPv4 - Addressing
• IPv4 supports three different types of addressing
modes. −

Unicast Addressing Mode

• In this mode, data is sent only to one destined
host. The Destination Address field contains 32-
bit IP address of the destination host. Here the
client sends data to the targeted server −
• Broadcast Addressing Mode
• In this mode, the packet is addressed to all the
hosts in a network segment.

• The Destination Address field contains a special

broadcast address, i.e. 255.255.255.255. When a
host sees this packet on the network, it is bound
to process it.

• Here the client sends a packet, which is

entertained by all the Servers −
• Multicast Addressing Mode

• This mode is a mix of the previous two modes,

i.e. the packet sent is neither destined to a single
host nor all the hosts on the segment.

• In this packet, the Destination Address contains

a special address which starts with 224.x.x.x and
can be entertained by more than one host.
• Here a server sends packets which are
entertained by more than one servers.

• Every network has one IP address reserved for

the Network Number which represents the
network and one IP address reserved for the
Broadcast Address, which represents all the
hosts in that network.
• Hierarchical Addressing Scheme

• IPv4 uses hierarchical addressing scheme.

• An IP address, which is 32-bits in length, is

divided into two or three parts as depicted −
• A single IP address can contain information
about the network and its sub-network and
ultimately the host.

• This scheme enables the IP Address to be

hierarchical where a network can have many
sub-networks which in turn can have many
hosts.
• Subnet Mask
• The 32-bit IP address contains information about the
host and its network. It is very necessary to distinguish
both.

• For this, routers use Subnet Mask, which is as long as

the size of the network address in the IP address.
Subnet Mask is also 32 bits long.

• 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.
• Binary Representation
• The positional value method is the simplest
form of converting binary from decimal value.

• IP address is 32 bit value which is divided into

4 octets.

• A binary octet contains 8 bits and the value of

each bit can be determined by the position of
bit value '1' in the octet.
• Positional value of bits is determined by 2
raised to power (position – 1), that is the value
of a bit 1 at position 6 is 2^(6-1) that is 2^5 that
is 32.

• The total value of the octet is determined by

adding up the positional value of bits.

• The value of 11000000 is 128+64 = 192.

• Some examples are shown in the table below −
• IPv4 - Address Classes
• Internet Protocol hierarchy contains several
classes of IP Addresses to be used efficiently in
various situations as per the requirement of hosts
per network.

• Broadly, the IPv4 Addressing system is divided into

five classes of IP Addresses. All the five classes are
identified by the first octet of IP Address.

• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and

Numbers is responsible for assigning IP addresses.
• The first octet referred here is the left most of
all. The octets numbered as follows depicting
dotted decimal notation of IP Address −
• The number of networks and the number of
hosts per class can be derived by this formula
−
• When calculating hosts' IP addresses, 2 IP
addresses are decreased because they cannot
be assigned to hosts,

• i.e. the first IP of a network is network number

and the last IP is reserved for Broadcast IP.
• Class A Address

• 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.HHH
HHHHH
• Class B Address

• 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.HHH
HHHHH
• Class C Address

• 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.HHHHH
HHH
• 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 range 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.
• IPv4 - Subnetting

• Each IP class is equipped with its own default

subnet mask which bounds that IP class to have
prefixed number of Networks and prefixed
number of Hosts per network.

• Classful IP addressing does not provide any

flexibility of having less number of Hosts per
Network or more Networks per IP Class.
• CIDR or Classless Inter Domain Routing

• provides the flexibility of borrowing bits of Host

part of the IP address and using them as Network
in Network, called Subnet.

• By using subnetting, one single Class A IP address

can be used to have smaller sub-networks which
provides better network management
capabilities.
• Class A Subnets
• In Class A, only the first octet is used as Network
identifier and rest of three octets are used to be
assigned to Hosts (i.e. 16777214 Hosts per
Network).

• To make more subnet in Class A, bits from Host

part are borrowed and the subnet mask is
changed accordingly.
 For example, if one MSB (Most Significant Bit) is
borrowed from host bits of second octet and
added to Network address,
• it creates two Subnets (21=2) with (223-2)
8388606 Hosts per Subnet.

• The Subnet mask is changed accordingly to

reflect subnetting.

• Given below is a list of all possible combination

of Class A subnets −
• In case of subnetting too, the very first and last
IP address of every subnet is used for Subnet
Number and Subnet Broadcast IP address
respectively.

• Because these two IP addresses cannot be

assigned to hosts, sub-netting cannot be
implemented by using more than 30 bits as
Network Bits, which provides less than two
hosts per subnet.
• Class B Subnets
• By default, using Classful Networking,

• 14 bits are used as Network bits providing (214)

16384 Networks and (216-2) 65534 Hosts.

• Class B IP Addresses can be subnetted the same

way as Class A addresses, by borrowing bits from
Host bits.

• Below is given all possible combination of Class B

subnetting −
• Class C Subnets

• Class C IP addresses are normally assigned to a

very small size network because it can only
have 254 hosts in a network.

• Given below is a list of all possible

combination of subnetted Class B IP address −
• IPv4 - VLSM
• Internet Service Providers may face a situation
where they need to allocate IP subnets of different
sizes as per the requirement of customer.

• One customer may ask Class C subnet of 3 IP

addresses and another may ask for 10 IPs.

• For an ISP, it is not feasible to divide the IP

addresses into fixed size subnets, rather he may
want to subnet the subnets in such a way which
results in minimum wastage of IP addresses.
• For example, an administrator have
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
Make a list of Subnets possible.
 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.
• IPv4 - Reserved Addresses

• 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 local host 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.
• how actual communication
happens on the Network
using Internet Protocol
version 4.
• Packet Flow in Network
• All the hosts in IPv4 environment are assigned
unique logical IP addresses.

• When a host wants to send some data to

another host on the network, it needs the
physical (MAC) address of the destination host.

• To get the MAC address, the host broadcasts

ARP message and asks to give the MAC address
whoever is the owner of destination IP address.
• All the hosts on that segment receive the ARP packet,
but only the host having its IP matching with the one
in the ARP message, replies with its MAC address.

• Once the sender receives the MAC address of the

receiving station, data is sent on the physical media.

• In case the IP does not belong to the local subnet,

the data is sent to the destination by means of
Gateway of the subnet.

• To understand the packet flow, we must first

understand the following components
• MAC Address −
• Media Access Control Address is 48-bit factory hard coded
physical address of network device which can uniquely be
identified.

• This address is assigned by device manufacturers.

• Address Resolution Protocol −

• Address Resolution Protocol is used to acquire the MAC address
of a host whose IP address is known.

• ARP is a Broadcast packet which is received by all the host in the

network segment.

• But only the host whose IP is mentioned in ARP responds to it

providing its MAC address.
• Proxy Server −
• To access the Internet, networks use a Proxy Server
which has a public IP assigned. All the PCs request
the Proxy Server for a Server on the Internet.

• The Proxy Server on behalf of the PCS sends the

request to the server and when it receives a
response from the Server, the Proxy Server forwards
it to the client PC.

• This is a way to control Internet access in computer

networks and it helps to implement web based
policies.
• Dynamic Host Control Protocol −
• DHCP is a service by which a host is assigned IP
address from a pre-defined address pool.

• DHCP server also provides necessary information

such as Gateway IP, DNS Server Address, lease
assigned with the IP, etc.

• By using DHCP services, a network administrator

can manage assignment of IP addresses at ease.
• Domain Name System −
• It is very likely that a user does not know the IP
address of a remote Server he wants to connect to.

• But he knows the name assigned to it, for example,

tutorialpoints.com.

• When the user types the name of a remote server he

wants to connect to, the localhost behind the
screens sends a DNS query.

• Domain Name System is a method to acquire the IP

address of the host whose Domain Name is known.
• Network Address Translation −
• Almost all PCs in a computer network are assigned private IP
addresses which are not routable on the Internet.

• As soon as a router receives an IP packet with a private IP

address, it drops it.

• In order to access servers on public private address,

computer networks use an address translation service, which
translates between public and private addresses, called
Network Address Translation.

• When a PC sends an IP packet out of a private network, NAT

changes the private IP address with public IP address and vice
versa.
• We can now describe the packet flow. Assume
that a user wants to access
www.TutorialsPoint.com from her personal
computer. She has internet connection from her
ISP. The following steps will be taken by the
system to help her reach the destination website.
• Step 1 – Acquiring an IP Address (DHCP)
• When the user’s PC boots up, it searches for a DHCP server to
acquire an IP address.

• For the same, the PC sends a DHCPDISCOVER broadcast which

is received by one or more DHCP servers on the subnet and
they all respond with DHCPOFFER which includes all the
necessary details such as IP, subnet, Gateway, DNS, etc.

• The PC sends DHCPREQUEST packet in order to request the

offered IP address.

• Finally, the DHCP sends DHCPACK packet to tell the PC that it

can keep the IP for some given amount of time that is known
as IP lease.
• Alternatively, a PC can be assigned an IP address
manually without taking any help from DHCP
server.

• When a PC is well configured with IP address

details, it can communicate other computers all
over the IP enabled network.
• Step 2 – DNS Query
• When a user opens a web browser and types
www.tutorialpoints.com which is a domain name
and a PC does not understand how to communicate
with the server using domain names,

• then the PC sends a DNS query out on the network

in order to obtain the IP address pertaining to the
domain name.

• The pre-configured DNS server responds to the

query with IP address of the domain name
specified.
• Step 3 – ARP Request
• The PC finds that the destination IP address does not belong to his own IP
address range and it has to forward the request to the Gateway.

• The Gateway in this scenario can be a router or a Proxy Server.

• Though the Gateway’s IP address is known to the client machine but

computers do not exchange data on IP addresses, rather they need the
machine’s hardware address which is Layer-2 factory coded MAC address.

• To obtain the MAC address of the Gateway, the client PC broadcasts an

ARP request saying "Who owns this IP address?" The Gateway in
response to the ARP query sends its MAC address.

• Upon receiving the MAC address, the PC sends the packets to the
Gateway.
• An IP packet has both source and destination
addresses and it connects the host with a remote
host logically,

• whereas MAC addresses help systems on a single

network segment to transfer actual data.

• It is important that source and destination MAC

addresses change as they travel across the
Internet (segment by segment) but source and
destination IP addresses never change.