IP Addressing

Background
The

goal of Universal Service is such that all

computers on all physically different networks
can communicate.
Physical addresses allow communication
between computers on one network.
A new level of abstraction must be be
introduced for internet communication.

IP Addresses
An

IP address is the next layer of abstraction.

The IP address provides virtual addressing.
The address is software controlled, whereas
the address for the network card is hardware
based.
The IP addressing scheme is quite complex,
and there have been many revisions to the IP
scheme.

IP Addresses (cont.)
IP

addressing allows for seamless integration

amongst heterogeneous networks.
To send a packet, the destination address is
the IP address of the computer, not the
hardware address! This allows for
communication across networks.

IP Addresses (cont.)
32

bits in length (IPv4)

64 bits in length (IPv6)
Addresses are divided into a prefix and suffix
The suffix is the host address
The prefix is the network number

IP Classes
People

commonly throw around terms like

Class C, but it should really be termed Class
C address or Class C address space.
Class A: 16777216 hosts!
Class B: 65536
Class C: 256

IP Class Scheme

IP Class Scheme

From the previous figure, we see that the 32-bit

address is split into 4 octets.
IP addresses are self identifying.
If the first 4 bits of the first octet are

0xxx: Class A address

10xx: Class B address
110x: Class C address
1110: Class D address (Multicast)
1111: Class E address

Dotted Decimal
IP

addresses are generally read in dotted

decimal format.
0.0.0.0 through 255.255.255.255
Much

better than reading:

10000001 00110100 00000110 00000000

Dotted Decimal with Classes

Class A:

Class B:

1 prefix octet (128 networks)

3 suffix octets (16777216 hosts)
2 prefix octets (16384 networks)
2 suffix octets (65536 hosts)

Class C:

3 prefix octets (2097152 networks)

1 suffix octet (256 hosts)

Address Space

Address Delegation (cont.)

RFC

1597 Private networks

10.0.0.0 10.255.255.255 (Full Class A)

172.16.0.0 172.31.255.255 (16 Class Bs)
192.168.0.0 192.168.255.255 (Full Class B)

Special Addresses (cont.)

Limited

Broadcast Address

All 1s in the entire address.

Limited broadcast address is restricted to the local
subnet.
255.255.255.255

Special Addresses (cont.)

Loopback

addresses

Loopbacks are used for testing. An IP looback is

application-level testing.
Any information sent to the loopback address is
never passed to the network segment. It is handled
internally in the TCP/IP stack.
127.x.x.x

Special Addresses (cont.)

This

computers address

If a computer doesnt know what its own address is,

but needs to communicate to another machine, it
designates the address of 0.0.0.0 for itself.
Applications include DHCP, BOOTP