SUBNETWORK

REPORT

GROUP MEMBERS:

JEEVANRAJ A/L CHELADURAI (23350)

Introduction

A subnetwork or subnet is a logical subdivision of an IP network.[1] The practice of dividing a

network into two or more networks is called subnetting.
Computers that belong to a subnet are addressed with a common, identical, most-significant bit-
group in their IP address. This results in the logical division of an IP address into two fields, a
network or routing prefix and the "rest" field or host identifier. The rest field is an identifier for a
specific host or network interface.
The routing prefix may be expressed in Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) notation written
as the first address of a network, followed by a slash character (/), and ending with the bit-length
of the prefix. For example, 192.168.1.0/24 is the prefix of the Internet Protocol Version
4 network starting at the given address, having 24 bits allocated for the network prefix, and the
remaining 8 bits reserved for host addressing. The IPv6 address specification 2001:db8::/32 is a
large address block with 296 addresses, having a 32-bit routing prefix.
For IPv4, a network may also be characterized by its subnet mask, which is the bitmask that
when applied by a bitwise AND operation to any IP address in the network, yields the routing
prefix. Subnet masks are also expressed in dot-decimal notation like an address. For example,
255.255.255.0 is the network mask for the 192.168.1.0/24 prefix.
Traffic is exchanged (routed) between subnet works with special gateways (routers) when the
routing prefixes of the source address and the destination address differ. A router constitutes the
logical or physical boundary between the subnets.
The benefits of subnetting an existing network vary with each deployment scenario. In the
address allocation architecture of the Internet using CIDR and in large organizations, it is
necessary to allocate address space efficiently. It may also enhance routing efficiency, or have
advantages in network management when subnetworks are administratively controlled by
different entities in a larger organization. Subnets may be arranged logically in a hierarchical
architecture, partitioning an organization's network address space into a tree-like routing
structure.
Implementation or working
A Class A, B, or C TCP/IP network can be further divided, or subnetted, by a system
administrator. This becomes necessary as you reconcile the logical address scheme of the
Internet (the abstract world of IP addresses and subnets) with the physical networks in use by the
real world.

A system administrator who is allocated a block of IP addresses may be administering networks

that are not organized in a way that easily fits these addresses. For example, you have a wide
area network with 150 hosts on three networks (in different cities) that are connected by a
TCP/IP router. Each of these three networks has 50 hosts. You are allocated the class C network
192.168.123.0. (For illustration, this address is actually from a range that is not allocated on the
Internet.) This means that you can use the addresses 192.168.123.1 to 192.168.123.254 for your
150 hosts.

Two addresses that cannot be used in example are 192.168.123.0 and 192.168.123.255 because
binary addresses with a host portion of all ones and all zeros are invalid. The zero address is
invalid because it is used to specify a network without specifying a host. The 255 address (in
binary notation, a host address of all ones) is used to broadcast a message to every host on a
network. Just remember that the first and last address in any network or subnet cannot be
assigned to any individual host.

You should now be able to give IP addresses to 254 hosts. This works fine if all 150 computers
are on a single network. However, your 150 computers are on three separate physical networks.
Instead of requesting more address blocks for each network, you divide your network into
subnets that enable you to use one block of addresses on multiple physical networks.

In this case, you divide your network into four subnets by using a subnet mask that makes the
network address larger and the possible range of host addresses smaller. In other words, you are
'borrowing' some of the bits usually used for the host address, and using them for the network
portion of the address. The subnet mask 255.255.255.192 gives you four networks of 62 hosts
each. This works because in binary notation, 255.255.255.192 is the same as
1111111.11111111.1111111.11000000. The first two digits of the last octet become network
addresses, so you get the additional networks 00000000 (0), 01000000 (64), 10000000 (128) and
11000000 (192). (Some administrators will only use two of the subnetworks using
255.255.255.192 as a subnet mask. For more information on this topic, see RFC 1878.) In these
four networks, the last 6 binary digits can be used for host addresses.

Using a subnet mask of 255.255.255.192, your 192.168.123.0 network then becomes the four
networks 192.168.123.0, 192.168.123.64, 192.168.123.128 and 192.168.123.192. These four
networks would have as valid host addresses:

192.168.123.1-62
192.168.123.65-126
192.168.123.129-190
192.168.123.193-254

Remember, again, that binary host addresses with all ones or all zeros are invalid, so you cannot
use addresses with the last octet of 0, 63, 64, 127, 128, 191, 192, or 255.

You can see how this works by looking at two host addresses, 192.168.123.71 and
192.168.123.133. If you used the default Class C subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, both addresses
are on the 192.168.123.0 network. However, if you use the subnet mask of 255.255.255.192,
they are on different networks; 192.168.123.71 is on the 192.168.123.64 network,
192.168.123.133 is on the 192.168.123.128 network.
Advantage s

1. Setting up logical divisions

Subnetting helps you maintain clean separations within a network. For example,
you can define boundaries between different departments in your organization,
with one subnet for sales, another for marketing, and a third for engineering.
Alternatively, you could divide your network by floors in a building, or even create
separate subnets for different device types such as VoIP phones, servers, and
workstations. Additionally, your logically separated networks would behave
almost as if they were physically separate without the need to re-cable much
networking gear to make a change.

2. Improved network security

With logical divisions between subnets, you have greater control over who has
access to what. For example, in our departmental example, you could easily restrict
those in engineering from accessing file server containing sensitive sales
information, and prevent sales from accessing a share that houses classified
engineering blueprints.
When you divide your network into subnets, you can also better contain security
incidents. Because there are clear separations between subnets, you can set rules to
limit traffic between each distinct subnet, and you can reduce exposure to security
incidents. For example, you can better contain a virus outbreak to one department,
limit the information a hacker is able to obtain, or restrict which devices are open
to attack once a portion of a network is compromised.
3. Improved network performance
Networks, like highways, can slow to a crawl when theres too much traffic
saturating the lanes. Some packets might not even make it to their destination if
theres too much network congestion (or even collisions), which can be
particularly problematic when theres a high volume of broadcast traffic being sent
to every device.
Subnetting reduces the amount of broadcast traffic by containing network
broadcasts at the subnet level instead of sending all broadcasts to the entire
network.

4. More or fewer IP addresses per subnet

Besides the logical separation use case, subnetting can be used for other purposes
as well.
Once you reach a certain number of devices on your network, and have exhausted
the number of IP addresses you can assign on a subnet, re-subnetting is a useful
way to add more IP addresses (sometimes called supernetting). For example, if you
need to extend a Class C IP range to accommodate more than 254 devices, you can
double the number available IP addresses by changing your subnet mask.
Similarly, if you'll never have many devices on a particular subnet and are limited
by the number of available IP addresses you can use, you can easily halve the size
of your subnet by altering the subnet mask as well, reserving the remaining half of
your IP addresses for use in a separate subnet.

Disadvantages

Costs Reliable network equipment such as routers, switches, hubs, bridges, etc
are very pricey. They have come down in price over the last few years, but the
good stuff is still expensive.
Support Subnetting and network management in general requires an experienced
network administrator. This adds to the overall cost as well. The average salary of
a network administrator in the Sacramento area is $60,000 per year.

Conclusion

As you can see, splitting a network into multiple subnets can get to be a
little complicated. However, if your network is suffering from excessive
traffic, then subnetting might be the answer that you are looking for.