IPv4 Addressing

Introduction to Networks v7.0

IPv4 Address Structure

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IPv4 Address Structure
Network and Host Portions
• An IPv4 address is a 32-bit hierarchical address that is made up of a network portion
and a host portion.

• When determining the network portion versus the host portion, you must look at the
32-bit stream.
• A subnet mask is used to determine the network and host portions.

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IPv4 Address Structure
The Subnet Mask
• To identify the network and host portions of an IPv4 address, the subnet mask is
compared to the IPv4 address bit for bit, from left to right.

• The actual process used to

identify the network and
host portions is called
ANDing.

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IPv4 Address Structure
The Prefix Length
• A prefix length is a less cumbersome method used to identify a subnet mask address.

Prefix
Subnet Mask 32-bit Address
• The prefix length is the number Length

of bits set to 1 in the subnet 255.0.0.0 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000 /8

mask. 255.255.0.0 11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000 /16

255.255.255.0 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 /24

• It is written in “slash notation”
therefore, count the number of 255.255.255.128 11111111.11111111.11111111.10000000 /25

bits in the subnet mask and 255.255.255.192 11111111.11111111.11111111.11000000 /26

prepend it with a slash.
255.255.255.224 11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000 /27

255.255.255.240 11111111.11111111.11111111.11110000 /28

255.255.255.248 11111111.11111111.11111111.11111000 /29

255.255.255.252 11111111.11111111.11111111.11111100 /30

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IPv4 Address Structure
Determining the Network: Logical AND
• A logical AND Boolean operation is used in determining the network address.
• Logical AND is the comparison of two bits where only a 1 AND 1 produces a 1 and any other
combination results in a 0.
• 1 AND 1 = 1, 0 AND 1 = 0, 1 AND 0 = 0, 0 AND 0 = 0
• 1 = True and 0 = False

• To identify the network address, the

host IPv4 address is logically
ANDed, bit by bit, with the subnet
mask to identify the network
address.

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IPv4 Address Structure
Video – Network, Host and Broadcast Addresses
This video will cover the following:
• Network address
• Broadcast Address
• First usable host
• Last usable host

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IPv4 Address Structure
Network, Host, and Broadcast Addresses
• Within each network are three types of IP addresses:
• Network address
• Host addresses
• Broadcast address

Host
Network Portion Host Bits
Portion
Subnet mask 255 255 255 0
255.255.255.0 or /24 11111111 11111111 11111111 00000000
Network address 192 168 10 0
All 0s
192.168.10.0 or /24 11000000 10100000 00001010 00000000
First address 192 168 10 1
All 0s and a 1
192.168.10.1 or /24 11000000 10100000 00001010 00000001
Last address 192 168 10 254
All 1s and a 0
192.168.10.254 or /24 11000000 10100000 00001010 11111110
Broadcast address 192 168 10 255
All 1s
192.168.10.255 or /24 11000000 10100000 00001010 11111111

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IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and
Multicast

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IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Unicast
• Unicast transmission is sending a packet to one destination IP address.

• For example, the PC at 172.16.4.1 sends a unicast packet to the printer at

172.16.4.253.

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IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Broadcast
• Broadcast transmission is sending a packet to all other destination IP addresses.

• For example, the PC at 172.16.4.1 sends a broadcast packet to all IPv4 hosts.

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IPv4 Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast
Multicast
• Multicast transmission is sending a packet to a multicast address group.

• For example, the PC at 172.16.4.1 sends a multicast packet to the multicast group
address 224.10.10.5.

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Types of IPv4 Addresses

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Types of IPv4 Addresses
Public and Private IPv4 Addresses
• As defined in in RFC 1918, public IPv4 addresses are globally routed between
internet service provider (ISP) routers.

• Private addresses are common blocks of Network Address

RFC 1918 Private Address Range
addresses used by most organizations to and Prefix

assign IPv4 addresses to internal hosts. 10.0.0.0/8 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255

172.16.0.0/12 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255

• Private IPv4 addresses are not unique
192.168.0.0/16 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
and can be used internally within any
network.

• However, private addresses are not globally routable.

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Types of IPv4 Addresses
Routing to the Internet
• Network Address Translation (NAT) translates private IPv4 addresses to public IPv4
addresses.

• NAT is typically enabled

on the edge router
connecting to the internet.

• It translates the internal

private address to a public
global IP address.

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Types of IPv4 Addresses
Special Use IPv4 Addresses
Loopback addresses
• 127.0.0.0 /8 (127.0.0.1 to 127.255.255.254)
• Commonly identified as only 127.0.0.1
• Used on a host to test if TCP/IP is operational.

Link-Local addresses
• 169.254.0.0 /16 (169.254.0.1 to 169.254.255.254)
• Commonly known as the Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) addresses or self-
assigned addresses.
• Used by Windows DHCP clients to self-configure when no DHCP servers are
available.

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Types of IPv4 Addresses
Legacy Classful Addressing
RFC 790 (1981) allocated IPv4 addresses
in classes
• Class A (0.0.0.0/8 to 127.0.0.0/8)
• Class B (128.0.0.0 /16 – 191.255.0.0 /16)
• Class C (192.0.0.0 /24 – 223.255.255.0 /24)
• Class D (224.0.0.0 to 239.0.0.0)
• Class E (240.0.0.0 – 255.0.0.0)

• Classful addressing wasted many IPv4

addresses.

Classful address allocation was replaced with

classless addressing which ignores the rules of
classes (A, B, C).
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Types of IPv4 Addresses
Assignment of IP Addresses
• The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) manages and allocates blocks of
IPv4 and IPv6 addresses to five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

• RIRs are responsible for

allocating IP addresses to ISPs
who provide IPv4 address
blocks to smaller ISPs and
organizations.

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