AGM LICE Broadband Module

IP ADDRESSING, Subnetting VLSM & Supernetting

Course Contents
 What is IP Addressing
 Different types of IP Addresses
 Classful and Classless IP Addresses
 Shortcomings of IPv4 Addresses

4.1 Objective
The objective of the is class is to understand IP addressing, Subnetting, VLSM and CIDR

4.2 Introduction
An IP address is an address used in order to uniquely identify a device on a computer
network. An IP address is an identifier for a computer or device on a TCP/IP network.
Networks uses IP address of the destination to route messages
An IP address is an identifier that is assigned at the Internet layer to an interface or a
set of interfaces. Each IP address can identify the source or destination of IP packets. When
you enable TCP/IP on an interface, you assign it one or more logical IP addresses, either
automatically or manually. The IP address is a logical address because it is assigned at the
Internet layer and has no relation to the physical addresses.

4.3 IP Address
The current version of IP, IP version 4 (IPv4), defines a 32-bit address which means
that there are only 232 (4,294,967,296) IPv4 addresses available. This might seem like a
large number of addresses, but as new markets open and a significant portion of the world's
population becomes candidates for IP addresses, the finite number of IP addresses will
eventually be exhausted. The address shortage problem is aggravated by the fact that portions
of the IP address space have not been efficiently allocated. Also, the traditional model of
classful addressing does not allow the address space to be used to its maximum potential.

4.4 Dotted-Decimal Notation

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To make Internet addresses easier for human users to read and write, IP addresses are
often expressed as four decimal numbers, each separated by a dot. This format is called
"dotted-decimal notation". Dotted-decimal notation divides the 32-bit Internet address into
four 8-bit (byte) fields and specifies the value of each field independently as a decimal
number with the fields separated by dots.

4.5 IPv4 Address Syntax

If network administrators expressed IPv4 addresses using binary notation, each
address would appear as a 32-digit string of 1s and 0s. Because such strings are cumbersome
to express and remember, administrators use dotted decimal notation, in which periods (or
dots) separate four decimal numbers (from 0 to 255). Each decimal number, known as an
octet, represents 8 bits (1 byte) of the 32-bit address. Each of these octet are separated by
decimal dot. This type of notation is called Decimal dotted notation.
Example of IP [Link] [Link] [Link]
For example, the IPv4 address 11000000101010000000001100011000 is expressed as
[Link] in dotted decimal [Link] to convert an IPv4 address from binary
notation to dotted decimal notation,
 Segment it into 8-bit blocks: 11000000 10101000 00000011 00011000
 Convert each block to decimal: 192 168 3 24
 Separate the blocks with periods: [Link]
4.6 Classes Of IP Addresses
In order to provide the flexibility required to support different size networks, the
designers decided that the IP address space should be divided into three different address
classes - Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E. This is often referred to as
"classful" addressing because the address space is split into three predefined classes,
groupings, or categories. Each class fixes the boundary between the network-prefix and the
host-number at a different point within the 32bit address.
One of the fundamental features of classful IP addressing is that each address
contains a self-encoding key that identifies the dividing point between the network-prefix and
the host-number.
4.6.1 Class A ( / 8 Prefixes)
Network Host

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Figure 4-1: Structure of class A addresses

Each Class A network address has an 8-bit network-prefix with the highest order bit

set to 0 and a seven-bit network number, followed by a 24-bit host number. Class A networks
are now referred to as "/8s" (pronounced "slash eight" or just "eights") since they have an 8-
bit network-prefix. A maximum of 126 (27 -2) /8 networks can be d fined. The calculation
requires that the 2 is subtracted because the /8 network [Link] is reserved for use as the
default route and the /8 network [Link] (also written 127/8 or [Link]/8) has been
reserved for the "loopback" function. Each /8 supports a maximum of 16,777,214 (224-2)
hosts per network. The host calculation requires that 2 is subtracted because the all-0s ("this
network") and all-1s ("broadcast") host-numbers may not be assigned to individual hosts.
4.6.2 Class B (/16 Prefixes)

Network Host
Figure 4-2: Structure of class B addresses

Each Class B network address has a 16-bit network-prefix with the two highest order

1 8

bits set to 1-0 and a 14-bit network number, followed by a 16-bit host-number. Class B
networks are now referred to as"/16s" since they have a 16-bit network-prefix.A maximum of
16,384 (214) /16 networks can be defined with up to 65,534 (216 -2) hosts per network.
4.6.3-Class C (/24 Prefixes)

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Network Host

Figure 4-3 : Structure of class C addresses

Each Class C network address has a 24-bit network-prefix with the three highest
order bits set to 1-1-0 and a 21-bit network number, followed by an 8-bit host-number. Class
C networks are now referred to as "/24s" since they have a 24-bit network-prefix. A
maximum of 2,097,152 ( 221 )/24 networks can be defined with up to 254 (28 -2) hosts per
network.

4.6.4 Class D
These addresses are reserved for IPv4 multicast addresses. The four high-order bits in
a class D address are always set to 1110, which makes the address prefix for all class D
addresses [Link]/4 (or [Link], [Link]). For more information, see "IPv4 Multicast
Addresses" in this chapter.

4.6.5 Class E
These addresses are reserved for experimental use. The high-order bits in a class E
address are set to 1111, which makes the address prefix for all class E addresses [Link]/4
(or [Link], [Link]).
The classful A, B, and C octet boundaries were easy to understand and implement,

but they did not foster the efficient allocation of a finite address space. A /24, which supports
254 hosts, is too small while a /16, which supports 65,534 hosts, is too large. In the past, the
Internet has assigned sites with several hundred hosts a single /16 address instead of a couple
of /24s addresses.
Given an IP address, its class can be determined from the three high-order bits (the
three left-most bits in the first octet). Figure 4-4 shows the range of addresses that fall into
each class. For informational purposes, Class D and Class E addresses are also shown.
Table 4.1 : Range of Address

IP CLASS IP RANGE

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CLASS A [Link]----[Link]

CLASS B [Link]----[Link]

CLASS C [Link]----[Link]

CLASS D [Link]-----[Link]

CLASS E [Link]-----[Link]

4.7 Public Addresses

If you want direct (routed) connectivity to the Internet, then you must use public
addresses. If you want indirect (proxied or translated) connectivity to the Internet, you can
use either public or private addresses. If your intranet is not connected to the Internet in any
way, you can use any unicast IPv4 addresses that you want. However, you should use private
addresses to avoid network renumbering if your intranet ever directly connects to the
Internet.
ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -A non-profit
corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the allocation or management of
domain names, IP addresses, protocols, and root servers) assigns public addresses, which
consist of either historically allocated classful address
When ICANN assigns a public address prefix to an organization, routes are added to
the routers of the Internet so that traffic matching the address prefix can reach the
organization. For example, when an organization is assigned an address prefix, that address
prefix also exists as a route in the routers of the Internet. IPv4 packets that are sent to an
address within the assigned address prefix are routed to the proper destination.

4.8 Illegal Addresses

Private organization intranets that do not need an Internet connection can choose any
address scheme they want, even using public address prefixes that ICANN has assigned to
other networks. If the private organization later decides to directly connect to the Internet,
these addresses could conflict with existing public addresses and become illegal addresses.
Organizations with illegal addresses cannot receive traffic at those addresses because the
routers of the Internet send traffic destined to ICANN-allocated address prefixes to the
assigned organizations, not to the organizations using illegal addresses.
For example, a private organization chooses to use the [Link]/24 address prefix
for its intranet. ICANN has assigned that prefix to the Microsoft Corporation, and routes
exist on the Internet routers to send all packets for IPv4 addresses on [Link]/24 to

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Microsoft. As long as the private organization does not connect to the Internet, it has no
problem because the two address prefixes are on separate IPv4 networks; therefore, the
addresses are unique to each network. If the private organization later connects directly to the
Internet and continues to use the [Link]/24 address prefix, any traffic sent through the
Internet to those addresses will arrive at Microsoft, not the private organization.

4.9 Private Addresses

Each IPv4 interface requires an IPv4 address that is unique within the IPv4 network.
In the case of the Internet, each IPv4 interface on a subnet connected to the Internet requires
an IPv4 address that is unique within the Internet. As the Internet grew, organizations
connecting to it required a public address for each interface on their intranets. This
requirement placed a huge demand on the pool of available public addresses.
When analysing the addressing needs of organizations, the designers of the Internet
noted that, for many organizations, most of the hosts did not require direct connectivity to the
Internet. Those hosts that did require a specific set of Internet services, such as Web access
and e-mail, typically accessed the Internet services through Application layer gateways, such
as proxy servers and e-mail servers. The result is that most organizations required only a few
public addresses for those nodes (such as proxies, servers, routers, firewalls, and translators)
that were directly connected to the Internet.
Hosts within the organization that do not require direct access to the Internet required
IPv4 addresses that do not duplicate already-assigned public addresses. To solve this
addressing problem, the Internet designers reserved a portion of the IPv4 address space for
private addresses. IPv4 addresses in the private address space are known as private addresses
and never assigned as public addresses. Because the public and private address spaces do not
overlap, private addresses never duplicate public addresses.
Following address prefixes are private address space:
[Link]/8 ([Link], [Link])
Allows the following range of valid IPv4 unicast addresses: [Link] to
[Link]. The [Link]/8 address prefix has 24 host bits that you can use for any
addressing scheme within a private organization.
[Link]/12 ([Link], [Link])
Allows the following range of valid IPv4 unicast addresses: [Link] to
[Link]. The [Link]/12 address prefix has 20 host bits that you can use for any
addressing scheme within a private organization.
[Link]/16 ([Link], [Link])
Allows the following range of valid IPv4 unicast addresses: [Link] to
[Link]. The [Link]/16 address prefix has 16 host bits that you can use for any
addressing scheme within a private organization.

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Because ICANN will never assign the IPv4 addresses in the private address space to
an organization connected to the Internet, Internet routers will never contain routes to private
addresses. You cannot connect to a private address over the Internet. Therefore, a host that
has a private address must send its Internet traffic requests to an Application layer gateway
(such as a proxy server) that has a valid public address or through a network address
translation (NAT) device that translates the private address into a valid public address.

4.10 Subnetting

Subnetting was introduced to overcome some of the problems that parts of the
Internet were beginning to experience with the classful addressing. Subnetting allows you to
create multiple logical networks that exist within a single Class A, B, or C network. If you do
not subnet, you are only able to use one network from your Class A, B, or C network, which
is unrealistic. Subnetting is a logical subdivision of an IP network. The practice of dividing a
network into two or more networks is called subnetting. Subnetting is the process of
designating some high-order bits from the host part and grouping them with the network part.
This divides a network into smaller subnets.
Subnetting attacked the expanding routing table problem by ensuring that the subnet
structure of a network is never visible outside of the organization's private network. The
route from the Internet to any subnet of a given IP address is the same, no matter which
subnet the destination host is on. This is because all subnets of a given network number use
the same network-prefix but different subnet numbers. The routers within the private
organization need to differentiate between the individual subnets, but as far as the Internet
routers are concerned, all of the subnets in the organization are collected into a single routing
table entry. This allows the local administrator to introduce arbitrary complexity into the
private network without affecting the size of the Internet's routing tables. Subnetting
overcame the registered number issue by assigning each organization one (or at most a few)
network number(s) from the IPv4 address space. The organization was then free to assign a
distinct subnetwork number for each of its internal networks. This allows the organization to
deploy additional subnets without needing to obtain a new network number from the Internet.
Table 4.2 details of Subnetting

Usable
Available Total
Prefix size Network mask hosts
subnets usable hosts
per subnet

/24 [Link] 1 254 254

/25 [Link] 2 126 252

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/26 [Link] 4 62 248

/27 [Link] 8 30 240

/28 [Link] 16 14 224

/29 [Link] 32 6 192

/30 [Link] 64 2 128

/31 [Link] 128 2* 256

The router accepts all traffic from the Internet addressed to the network and forwards
traffic to the interior subnetworks based on the third octet of the classful address. The
deployment of subnetting within the private network provides several benefits: The size of
the global Internet routing table does not grow because the site administrator does not need to
obtain additional address space and the routing advertisements for all of the subnets are
combined into a single routing table entry. The local administrator has the flexibility to
deploy additional subnets without obtaining a new network number from the Internet. Route
flapping (i.e., the rapid changing of routes) within the private network does not affect the
Internet routing table since Internet routers do not know about the reachability of the
individual subnets - they just know about the reachability of the parent network number.
Extended-Network-Prefix Internet routers use only the network-prefix of the destination
address to route traffic to a subnetted environment. Routers within the subnetted environment
use the extended network- prefix to route traffic between the individual subnets. The
extended network-prefix is composed of the classful network-prefix and the subnet-number.
The extended-network-prefix has traditionally been identified by the subnet mask.
For example, if you have the /16 address of [Link] and you want to use the entire third
octet to represent the subnet-number, you need to specify a subnet mask of [Link].
The bits in the subnet mask and the Internet address have a one-to-one correspondence. The
bits of the subnet mask are set to 1 if the system examining the address should treat the
corresponding bit in the IP address as part of the extended-network- prefix. The bits in the
mask are set to 0 if the system should treat the bit as part of the host-number.
The standards describing modern routing protocols often refer to the extended-
network-prefix-length rather than the subnet mask. The prefix length is equal to the number
of contiguous one-bits in the traditional subnet mask. This means that specifying the network
address [Link] with a subnet mask of [Link] can also be expressed as
[Link]/24. The /<prefix-length> notation is more compact and easier to understand than
writing out the mask in its traditional dotted-decimal format.

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4.11 VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Mask)

The traditional method of subnetting is fixed length subnet mask (FLSM), where in
you have one subnet. When an IP network has more than one subnet mask, it is considered a
network with "variable length subnet masks" since the extended-network-pre-fixes have
different lengths. VLSM or variable length subnet masking is the more realistic way of
subnetting a network to make for the most efficient use of all of the bits. Remember that
when you perform classful subnetting, all subnets have the same number of hosts because
they all use the same subnet mask. This leads to inefficiencies. For example, if you borrow 4
bits on a Class C network, you end up with 14 valid subnets of 14 valid hosts. A serial link to
another router only needs 2 hosts, but with classical subnetting, you end up wasting 12 of
those hosts.
It is for this reason that VLSM is used and to put it simply it is the process of
“subnetting a subnet” and using different subnet masks for different networks in your IP
plan. What you have to remember is that you need to make sure that there is no overlap in
any of the addresses.
VLSM is often used in a college campus environment. If the network administrator
has a Class B block of addresses to use on several campuses, he/she normally uses variable
length subnets. The subnets may then be further divided by building and workgroup on the
campuses, which would require different numbers of addresses. If fixed subnet masks were
used to allocate the same number of IP addresses to the locations, a number of addresses
would be wasted. If VLSM is employed, then there is less waste in the allocated address
space across all of the campus locations, giving more room for network growth
There are several advantages to be gained if more than one subnet mask can be
assigned to a given IP network number: Multiple subnet masks permit more efficient use of
an organization's assigned IP address space. Multiple subnet masks permit route aggregation
which can significantly reduce the amount of routing information at the "backbone" level
within an organization's routing domain. Efficient Use of the Organization's Assigned IP
Address [Link] supports more efficient use of an organization's assigned IP address
space. One of the major problems with the earlier limitation of supporting only a single
subnet mask across a given network-prefix was that once the mask was selected, it locked the
organization into a fixed-number of fixed-sized subnets. For example, assume that a network
administrator decided to configure the [Link]/16 network with a /22 extended-network-
prefix.
A /16 network with a /22 extended-network prefix permits 64 subnets (26 ), each of
which supports a maximum of 1,022 hosts (210 -2). This is fine if the organization wants to
deploy a number of large subnets, but what about the occasional small subnet containing only
20 or 30 hosts? Since a subnetted network could have only a single mask, the network
administrator was still required to assign the 20 or 30 hosts to a subnet with a 22-bit prefix.
This assignment would waste approximately 1,000 IP host addresses for each small subnet

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deployed. Limiting the association of a network number with a single mask did not
encourage the flexible and efficient use of an organization's address space. One solution to
this problem was to allow a subnetted network to be assigned more than one subnet mask.
Assume that in the previous example, the network administrator is also allowed to configure
the [Link]/16 network with a /26 extended-network-prefix. A /16 network address with a
/26 extended-network prefix permits 1024 subnets (210 ), each of which supports a maximum
of 62 hosts (26 -2). The /26 prefix would be ideal for small subnets with less than 60 hosts,
while the /22 prefix is well suited for larger subnets containing up to 1000 hosts.
Conceptually, a network is first divided into subnets, some of the subnets are further
divided into sub-subnets, and some of the sub-subnets are divided into sub 2 -subnets. This
allows the detailed structure of routing information for one subnet group to be hidden from
routers in another subnet group.
The process of VLSM can be split in to 5 simple rules:
Step 1 –Identify the network with maximum hosts
Step 2 -Determine how many bits will be needed to satisfy this largest network.
Step 3 - Pick a subnet for the largest network to use.
Step 4 - Pick the next largest network to work with.
Step 5 - Pick the third largest network to work with.
Step 6 - Determine network numbers for serial links.

4.12-Classless Inter Domain Routing (CIDR)

By 1992, the exponential growth of the Internet was beginning to raise serious
concerns among members of the IETF about the ability of the Internet's routing system to
scale and support future growth.
The near-term exhaustion of the Class B network address space as it was one of the
most commonly used class. The rapid growth in the size of the global Internet's routing
tables. The eventual exhaustion of the 32-bit IPv4 address space. Projected Internet growth
figures made it clear that it was very likely to become critical by 1994 or 1995. The response
to these immediate challenges was the development of the concept of Super netting or
Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR). The other problem, which is of a more long-term
nature, is currently being explored by the IP Next Generation (IPng or IPv6) working group
of the IETF. CIDR was officially documented in September 1993 in RFC 1517, 1518, 1519,
and 1520. CIDR supports two important features that benefit the global Internet routing
system: CIDR eliminates the traditional concept of Class A, Class B, and Class C network
addresses. This enables the efficient allocation of the IPv4 address space which will allow the
continued growth of the Internet until IPv6 is deployed. CIDR supports route aggregation

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where a single routing table entry can represent the address space of perhaps thousands of
traditional classful routes. This allows a single routing table entry to specify how to route
traffic to many individual network addresses. Route aggregation helps control the amount of
routing information in the Internet's backbone routers, reduces route flapping (rapid changes
in route availability), and eases the local administrative burden of updating external routing
information. Without the rapid deployment of CIDR in 1994 and 1995, the Internet routing
tables would have in excess of 70,000 routes (instead of the current 30,000+) and the Internet
would probably not be functioning today.

CIDR Promotes the Efficient Allocation of the IPv4 Address Space CIDR eliminates
the traditional concept of Class A, Class B, and Class C network addresses and replaces them
with the generalized concept of a "network-prefix." Routers use the network-prefix, rather
than the first 3 bits of the IP address, to determine the dividing
point between the network number and the host number. As a result, CIDR supports the
deployment of arbitrarily sized networks rather than the standard 8-bit, 16- bit, or 24-bit
network numbers associated with classful addressing. In the CIDR model, each piece of
routing information is advertised with a bit mask (or prefix-length). The prefix-length is a
way of specifying the number of leftmost contiguous bits in the network-portion of each
routing table entry. For example, a network with 20 bits of network-number and 12-bits of
host-number would be advertised with a 20-bit prefix length (a /20).
The clever thing is that the IP address advertised with the /20 prefix could be a former
Class A, Class B, or Class C. Routers that support CIDR do not make assumptions based on
the first 3-bits of the address, they rely on the prefix- length. In a classless environment,
prefixes are viewed as bit wise contiguous blocks of the IP address space. For example, all
prefixes with a /20 prefix represent the same amount of address space (212 or 4,096 host
addresses). Furthermore, a /20 prefix can be assigned to a traditional Class A, Class B, or
Class C network number.
CIDR is now the routing system used by virtually all gateway routers on the Internet's
backbone network. The Internet's regulating authorities expect every Internet service
provider (ISP) to use it for routing. CIDR is supported by the Border Gateway Protocol, the
prevailing exterior (inter domain) gateway protocol and by the OSPF interior (or intra
domain) gateway protocol. Older gateway protocols like Exterior Gateway Protocol and
Routing Information Protocol do not support CIDR.
4.13 Conclusion
The aim of this chapter was to give an overview of IP Addressing. This subject being
quite vast and complex, it is very difficult to understand in one go. But the basis of data
networking lies on this concept.
*****

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