1

Network Layer Design Issues:

The network layer or layer 3 of the OSI (Open Systems Interconnec on) model is concerned
delivery of data packets from the source to the des na on across mul ple hops or links. It is
the lowest layer that is concerned with end − to − end transmission. The designers who are
concerned with designing this layer needs to cater to certain issues. These issues encompass
the services provided to the upper layers as well as internal design of the layer.
The design issues can be elaborated under four heads −
 Store − and − Forward Packet Switching
 Services to Transport Layer
 Providing Connec on Oriented Service
 Providing Connec onless Service

1. Store − and − Forward Packet Switching:

The network layer operates in an environment that uses store and forward packet switching.
The node which has a packet to send, delivers it to the nearest router. The packet is stored in
the router un l it has fully arrived and its checksum is verified for error detec on. Once, this
is done, the packet is forwarded to the next router. Since, each router needs to store the en re
packet before it can forward it to the next hop, the mechanism is called store − and − forward
switching.

2. Services provided to Transport Layer:

Through the network/transport layer interface, the network layer transfers its services to the
transport layer. These services are described below.
But before providing these services to the transfer layer following goals must be kept in mind:

 Offering services must not depend on router technology.

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 The transport layer needs to be protected from the type, number and topology of the
available router.
 The network addresses for the transport layer should use uniform numbering pa ern
also at LAN and WAN connec ons.
Based on the connec ons there are 2 types of services provided:
Connec onless – The rou ng and inser on of packets into subnet is done individually.
No added setup is required.
Connec on-Oriented – Subnet must offer reliable service and all the packets must be
transmi ed over a single route.

3. Implementa on of Connec onless Service:

Packet is termed as “datagrams” and corresponding subnet as “datagram subnets”. When the
message size that has to be transmi ed is 4 mes the size of the packet, then the network
layer divides into 4 packets and transmits each packet to router via. a few protocols. Each data
packet has des na on address and is routed independently irrespec ve of the packets.

4. Implementa on of Connec on Oriented service:

To use a connec on-oriented service, first we establish a connec on, use it and then release
it. In connec on-oriented services, the data packets are delivered to the receiver in the same
order in which they have been sent by the sender.
It can be done in either two ways:
Circuit Switched Connec on – A dedicated physical path or a circuit is established
between the communica ng nodes and then data stream is transferred.
Virtual Circuit Switched Connec on – The data stream is transferred over a packet
switched network, in such a way that it seems to the user that there is a dedicated
path from the sender to the receiver. A virtual path is established here. While, other
connec ons may also be using the same path.

Rou ng Algorithms in Computer Networks:

Rou ng algorithms are basically used in computer networks to determine the most efficient
path for data to travel. They use various metrics such as distance, traffic, and available
bandwidth to make rou ng decisions and op mize network performance.
A rou ng algorithm is a way to establish the path for data packets. The path is from the source
to the des na on. It helps in leading internet traffic.
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When a data packet leaves its origin, it can take one of many different paths. It computes the
best path (least-cost path) to send the data.

Flooding in Computer Networks:

Flooding is a technique of rou ng in computer networking, in which a sender node transmits
packets via all the outgoing links. Flooding is similar to broadcas ng in that it happens when
sender packets are transferred without rou ng data to each network node a ached.
Since flooding naturally u lizes each route in the network, flooding algorithms are designed
to find and u lize the shortest path to transfer the packets. Flooding can also be used for
D.O.S. (Denial Of Service) a acks for bringing down a network by flooding network traffic.

What is Flooding:
Flooding is a sta c rou ng technique, based on the following principle:
“When a packet reaches the router, it is transferred to all the outgoing links, except only the
link that it has reached the router through.”
Flooding is used in rou ng protocols such as O.S.P.F. (Open Shortest Path First), peer-to-peer
file transfers, systems such as Usenet, bridging, etc. Let us have a look at an example for a
be er understanding. Assume there is a network with 6 routers connected through
transmission lines, as shown in the figure ahead.

Following are the Events that Take Place in Flooding:

 Any packet incoming to A is sent to D, C, and B.
 B sends this packet to E and C.
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 C sends this packet to F, D, and B.

 D sends this packet to F and C.
 E sends the packet to F.
 F sends the packet to E and C.

Types of Flooding:
Flooding may be of three types −
Uncontrolled flooding − Here, each router uncondi onally transmits the incoming data
packets to all its neighbours.
Controlled flooding − They use some methods to control the transmission of packets
to the neighbouring nodes. The two popular algorithms for controlled flooding are
Sequence Number Controlled Flooding (SNCF) and Reverse Path Forwarding (RPF).
Selec ve flooding − Here, the routers don't transmit the incoming packets only along
those paths which are heading towards approximately in the right direc on, instead
of every available paths.

Characteris cs of Flooding:
Following are some features of flooding:

 Every possible route between the source and the des na on for transmission is tried
in flooding.
 There always exists a minimum of one route which is the shortest.
 Any node that is connected, whether directly or indirectly, is explored.
 Flooding does not require any informa on related to the network, such as the costs of
various paths, load condi ons, topology, etc. This is why it is non-adap ve.

Advantages of Flooding:
 It is very simple to setup and implement, since a router may know only its neighbours.
 It is extremely robust. Even in case of malfunc oning of a large number routers, the
packets find a way to reach the des na on.
 All nodes which are directly or indirectly connected are visited. So, there are no
chances for any node to be le out. This is a main criteria in case of broadcast
messages.
 The shortest path is always chosen by flooding.
5

Limita ons of Flooding:

Flooding tends to create an infinite number of duplicate data packets, unless some measures
are adopted to damp packet genera on.
It is wasteful if a single des na on needs the packet, since it delivers the data packet to all
nodes irrespec ve of the des na on.
The network may be clogged with unwanted and duplicate data packets. This may hamper
delivery of other data packets.

Distance Vector Rou ng Algorithm:

Distance vector is the "Dynamic Rou ng" protocol. Distant vector protocol also called as
Bellman-Ford algorithm used to calculate the shortest path.
Explana on of Distance Vector Rou ng Algorithm:
Distance vector rou ng algorithm is also called as Bellman-Ford algorithm or Ford Fulkerson
algorithm as this algorithm is used to find the shortest route from one node to another node
in the network.
The rou ng protocol is used to calculate the best route from source to des na on based on
the distance or hops as its primary metric to define an op mal path. The distance vector refers
to the distance to the neighbour nodes, where rou ng defines the routes to the established
node.
The Distance Vector rou ng algorithm (DVR) shares the informa on of the rou ng table with
the other routers in the network and keeps the informa on up-to-date to select an op mal
path from source to des na on.
The Bellman-Ford algorithm is defined as:
6

Let's understand a few key points about the distance vector rou ng protocol:
Network Informa on:
Every node in the network should have informa on about its neighbouring node. Each node
in the network is designed to share informa on with all the nodes in the network.
Rou ng Pa ern:
In DVR the data shared by the nodes are transmi ed only to that node that is linked directly
to one or more nodes in the network.
Data sharing:
The nodes share the informa on with the neighbouring node from me to me as there is a
change in network topology.

Example of Distance Vector Rou ng:

Consider the following network; three routers are there: A, B, and C with AB=1, BC=2, and
CA=5.
Let's see the following steps to understand it be er.

Step 1:
Each router shares its rou ng table with every neighbour in this distance vector rou ng
network. As A will share its rou ng table with neighbours B and C, neighbours B and C will
share their rou ng table with A.
Rou ng table A:
7
8
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Advantage of Distance Vector Rou ng:

 For a typical LAN se ng, bandwidth requirements are minimal.

 compared to other rou ng techniques, requires less hardware and compu ng power.
 reliable and tested approach (distance vector was the original rou ng algorithm)
 Simple to use and administer

Disadvantage of Distance Vector Rou ng:

 Time to convergence is rela vely slow (updates sent at specified intervals)

 Before making any modifica ons to forwarding, routers must recalculate their rou ng
tables.
 vulnerability to rou ng loops (count-to-infinity)
 For WAN or complex LAN situa ons, bandwidth requirements may be excessive.

hierarchical rou ng algorithms:

In hierarchical rou ng, the routers are divided into regions. Each router has complete details
about how to route packets to des na ons within its own region. But it does not have any
idea about the internal structure of other regions.
As we know, in both LS and DV algorithms, every router needs to save some informa on about
other routers. When network size is growing, the number of routers in the network will
increase. Therefore, the size of rou ng table increases, then routers cannot handle network
traffic as efficiently. To overcome this problem, we are using hierarchical rou ng.
In hierarchical rou ng, routers are classified in groups called regions. Each router has
informa on about the routers in its own region and it has no informa on about routers in
other regions. So, routers save one record in their table for every other region.
For huge networks, a two-level hierarchy may be insufficient hence, it may be necessary to
group the regions into clusters, the clusters into zones, the zones into groups and so on.
Example:
Consider an example of two-level hierarchy with five regions as shown in figure –
10

Let see the full rou ng table for router 1A which has 17 entries, as shown below –
11

Explana on:
 Step 1 − For example, the best path from 1A to 5C is via region 2, but hierarchical
rou ng of all traffic to region 5 goes via region 3 as it is be er for most of the other
des na ons of region 5.
 Step 2 − Consider a subnet of 720 routers. If no hierarchy is used, each router will
have 720 entries in its rou ng table.
 Step 3 − Now if the subnet is par oned into 24 regions of 30 routers each, then
each router will require 30 local entries and 23 remote entries for a total of 53
entries.
Example:
If the same subnet of 720 routers is par oned into 8 clusters, each containing 9 regions and
each region containing 10 routers. Then what will be the total number of table entries in
each router.
Solu on:
10 local entries + 8 remote regions + 7 clusters = 25 entries.
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Conges on control algorithms

What is conges on?
A state occurring in network layer when the message traffic is so heavy that it slows down
network response me.
Effects of Conges on

 As delay increases, performance decreases.

 If delay increases, retransmission occurs, making situa on worse.
Conges on control algorithms

 Conges on Control is a mechanism that controls the entry of data packets into the
network, enabling a be er use of a shared network infrastructure and avoiding
conges ve collapse.
 Conges ve-Avoidance Algorithms (CAA) are implemented at the TCP layer as the
mechanism to avoid conges ve collapse in a network.

There are two conges on control algorithm which are as follows:

Leaky Bucket Algorithm
 The leaky bucket algorithm discovers its use in the context of network traffic shaping or
rate-limi ng.
 A leaky bucket execu on and a token bucket execu on are predominantly used for traffic
shaping algorithms.
 This algorithm is used to control the rate at which traffic is sent to the network and
shape the burst traffic to a steady traffic stream.
 The disadvantages compared with the leaky-bucket algorithm are the inefficient use of
available network resources.
 The large area of network resources such as bandwidth is not being used effec vely.

Let us consider an example to understand

Imagine a bucket with a small hole in the bo om. No ma er at what rate water enters the
bucket, the ou low is at constant rate. When the bucket is full with water addi onal water
entering spills over the sides and is lost.
13

Similarly, each network interface contains a leaky bucket and the following steps are
involved in leaky bucket algorithm:

 When host wants to send packet, packet is thrown into the bucket.
 The bucket leaks at a constant rate, meaning the network interface transmits packets
at a constant rate.
 Busty traffic is converted to a uniform traffic by the leaky bucket.
 In prac ce the bucket is a finite queue that outputs at a finite rate.

Token Bucket Algorithm

The leaky bucket algorithm has a rigid output design at the average rate independent of the
bursty traffic. In some applica ons, when large bursts arrive, the output is allowed to speed
up. This calls for a more flexible algorithm, preferably one that never loses informa on.
Therefore, a token bucket algorithm finds its uses in network traffic shaping or rate-limi ng.
It is a control algorithm that indicates when traffic should be sent. This order comes based
on the display of tokens in the bucket. The bucket contains tokens. Each of the tokens
defines a packet of predetermined size. Tokens in the bucket are deleted for the ability to
share a packet.
When tokens are shown, a flow to transmit traffic appears in the display of tokens. No token
means no flow sends its packets. Hence, a flow transfers traffic up to its peak burst rate in
good tokens in the bucket.
Thus, the token bucket algorithm adds a token to the bucket each 1 / r seconds. The volume
of the bucket is b tokens. When a token appears, and the bucket is complete, the token is
discarded. If a packet of n bytes appears and n tokens are deleted from the bucket, the
packet is forwarded to the network.
When a packet of n bytes appears but fewer than n tokens are available. No tokens are
removed from the bucket in such a case, and the packet is considered non-conformant. The
14

non-conformant packets can either be dropped or queued for subsequent transmission

when sufficient tokens have accumulated in the bucket.
They can also be transmi ed but marked as being non-conformant. The possibility is that
they may be dropped subsequently if the network is overloaded.

The IP version 4 protocol

IPv4:
IPv4 is a connec onless protocol used for packet-switched networks. It operates on a best-
effort delivery model, in which neither delivery is guaranteed, nor proper sequencing or
avoidance of duplicate delivery is assured. Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is the fourth
revision of the Internet Protocol and a widely used protocol in data communica on over
different kinds of networks. IPv4 is a connec onless protocol used in packet-switched layer
networks, such as Ethernet. It provides a logical connec on between network devices by
providing iden fica on for each device. There are many ways to configure IPv4 with all kinds
of devices – including manual and automa c configura ons – depending on the network type.
IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses for Ethernet communica on in five classes: A, B, C, D and E. Classes
A, B and C have a different bit length for addressing the network host. Class D addresses are
reserved for mul cas ng, while class E addresses are reserved for military purposes. IPv4 uses
32-bit (4-byte) addressing, which gives 232 addresses. IPv4 addresses are wri en in the dot-
decimal nota on, which comprises of four octets of the address expressed individually in
decimal and separated by periods, for instance, [Link].
15

Ipv4 header format:

 VERSION: Version of the IP protocol (4 bits), which is 4 for IPv4

 HLEN: IP header length (4 bits), which is the number of 32-bit words in the header. The
minimum value for this field is 5 and the maximum is 15.
 Type of service: Low Delay, High Throughput, Reliability (8 bits)
 Total Length: Length of header + Data (16 bits), which has a minimum value 20 bytes
and the maximum is 65,535 bytes.
 Iden fica on: Unique Packet Id for iden fying the group of fragments of a single IP
datagram (16 bits)
 Flags: 3 flags of 1 bit each: reserved bit (must be zero), do not fragment flag, more
fragments flag (same order)
 Fragment Offset: Represents the number of Data Bytes ahead of the par cular
fragment in the par cular Datagram. Specified in terms of number of 8 bytes, which
has the maximum value of 65,528 bytes.
 Time to live: Datagram’s life me (8 bits), It prevents the datagram to loop through the
network by restric ng the number of Hops taken by a Packet before delivering to the
Des na on.
 Protocol: Name of the protocol to which the data is to be passed (8 bits)
 Header Checksum: 16 bits header checksum for checking errors in the datagram
header
 Source IP address: 32 bits IP address of the sender
 Des na on IP address: 32 bits IP address of the receiver
 Op on: Op onal informa on such as source route, record route. Used by the Network
administrator to check whether a path is working or not.

Advantages of IPv4

 IPv4 security permits encryp on to keep up privacy and security.

 IPV4 network alloca on is significant and presently has quite 85000 prac cal routers.
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 It becomes easy to a ach mul ple devices across an outsized network while not NAT.
 This is a model of communica on so provides quality service also as economical
knowledge transfer.

Limita ons of IPv4

 IP relies on network layer addresses to iden fy end-points on network, and each

network has a unique IP address.
 The world’s supply of unique IP addresses is dwindling, and they might eventually run
out theore cally.
 If there are mul ple hosts, we need IP addresses of next class.

Introduc on of Classful IP Addressing

h ps://[Link]/introduc on-of-classful-ip-addressing/

IP version 6
IPv6 was developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the problem of IPv4
exhaus on. IPv6 is a 128-bits address having an address space of 2128, which is way bigger
than IPv4. IPv6 use Hexa-Decimal format separated by colon (:).
Components in Address format

 There are 8 groups and each group represents 2 Bytes (16-bits).

 Each Hex-Digit is of 4 bits (1 nibble)
 Delimiter used – colon (:)

Need for IPv6:

1. Large address space
An IPv6 address is 128 bits long. compared with the 32-bit address of IPv4, this is a huge (2
raised 96 mes) increases in the address space.
2. Be er header format
IPv6 uses a new header format in which op ons are separated from the base header and
inserted, when needed, between the base header and the upper layer data. This simplifies
and speeds up the rou ng process because most of the op ons do not need to be checked by
routers.
3. New op ons
17

IPv6 has new op ons to allow for addi onal func onali es.
4. Allowance for extension
IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of the protocol if required by new technologies or
applica ons.
5. Support for resource alloca on
In IPv6, the type of service field has been removed, but two new fields, traffic class and flow
label have been added to enables the source to request special handling of the packet. this
mechanism can be used to support traffic such as real- me audio and video.
6. Support for more security
The encryp on and authen ca on op ons in IPv6 provide confiden ality and integrity of the
packet.

In IPv6 representa on, we have three addressing methods

 Unicast
 Mul cast
 Anycast
Addressing methods
1. Unicast Address
Unicast Address iden fies a single network interface. A packet sent to a unicast address is
delivered to the interface iden fied by that address.

2. Mul cast Address

Mul cast Address is used by mul ple hosts, called as groups, acquires a mul cast des na on
address. These hosts need not be geographically together. If any packet is sent to this mul cast
address, it will be distributed to all interfaces corresponding to that mul cast address. And
every node is configured in the same way. In simple words, one data packet is sent to mul ple
des na ons simultaneously.

3. Anycast Address
Anycast Address is assigned to a group of interfaces. Any packet sent to an anycast address
will be delivered to only one member interface (mostly nearest host possible).
Note: Broadcast is not defined in IPv6.
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Ipv6 header format:

 Version (4-bits): It represents the version of Internet Protocol, i.e., 0110.

 Traffic Class (8-bits): These 8 bits are divided into two parts. The most significant 6 bits
are used for Type of Service to let the Router Known what services should be provided
to this packet. The least significant 2 bits are used for Explicit Conges on No fica on
(ECN).
 Flow Label (20-bits): This label is used to maintain the sequen al flow of the packets
belonging to a communica on. The source labels the sequence to help the router
iden fy that a par cular packet belongs to a specific flow of informa on. This field
helps avoid re-ordering of data packets. It is designed for streaming/real- me media.
 Payload Length (16-bits): This field is used to tell the routers how much informa on a
par cular packet contains in its payload. Payload is composed of Extension Headers
and Upper Layer data. With 16 bits, up to 65535 bytes can be indicated; but if the
Extension Headers contain Hop-by-Hop Extension Header, then the payload may
exceed 65535 bytes and this field is set to 0
 Next Header (8-bits): This field is used to indicate either the type of Extension Header,
or if the Extension Header is not present then it indicates the Upper Layer PDU. The
values for the type of Upper Layer PDU are same as IPv4’s.
 Hop Limit (8-bits): This field is used to stop packet to loop in the network infinitely.
This is same as TTL in IPv4. The value of Hop Limit field is decremented by 1 as it passes
a link (router/hop). When the field reaches 0 the packet is discarded.
 Source Address (128-bits): This field indicates the address of originator of the packet.
 Des na on Address (128-bits): This field provides the address of intended recipient of
the packet.
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Extension Headers
In IPv6, the Fixed Header contains only that much informa on which is necessary, avoiding
that informa on which is either not required or is rarely used. All such informa on is put
between the Fixed Header and the Upper layer header in the form of Extension Headers. Each
Extension Header is iden fied by a dis nct value.
When Extension Headers are used, IPv6 Fixed Header’s Next Header field points to the first
Extension Header. If there is one more Extension Header, then the first Extension Header’s
‘Next-Header’ field points to the second one, and so on. The last Extension Header’s ‘Next-
Header’ field points to the Upper Layer Header. Thus, all the headers’ points to the next one
in a linked list manner.
If the Next Header field contains the value 59, it indicates that there are no headers a er this
header, not even Upper Layer Header.
The following Extension Headers must be supported as per RFC 2460:

Extension Headers are arranged one a er another in a linked list manner, as depicted in the
following diagram:
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IP addresses
All the computers of the world on the Internet network communicate with each other with
underground or underwater cables or wirelessly. If I want to download a file from the internet
or load a web page or literally do anything related to the internet, my computer must have an
address so that other computers can find and locate mine in order to deliver that par cular
file or webpage that I am reques ng. In technical terms, that address is called IP Address or
Internet Protocol Address.
Let us understand it with another example, like if someone wants to send you a mail then
he/she must have your home address. Similarly, your computer too needs an address so that
other computers on the internet can communicate with each other without the confusion of
delivering informa on to someone else’s computer. And that is why each computer in this
world has a unique IP Address. Or in other words, an IP address is a unique address that is
used to iden fy computers or nodes on the internet. This address is just a string of numbers
wri en in a certain format. It is generally expressed in a set of numbers for example
[Link]. Here each number in the set is from 0 to 255 range. Or we can say that a full IP
address ranges from [Link] to [Link]. And these IP addresses are assigned by IANA
(known as Internet Corpora on for Internet Assigned Numbers Authority).

Working of IP addresses
It can also use some set of rules to send informa on. Using these protocols, we can easily
send, and receive data or files to the connected devices. There are several steps behind the
scenes. Let us look at them

 Your device directly requests your Internet Service Provider which then grants your
device access to the web.
 And an IP Address is assigned to your device from the given range available.
 Your internet ac vity goes through your service provider, and they route it back to you,
using your IP address.
 Your IP address can change. For example, turning your router on or off can change your
IP Address.
 When you are out from your home loca on your home IP address doesn’t accompany
you. It changes as you change the network of your device.

Types of IP Address
IP Address is of two types:
1. IPv4:
21

Internet Protocol version 4. It consists of 4 numbers separated by the dots. Each number can
be from 0-255 in decimal numbers. But computers do not understand decimal numbers, they
instead change them to binary numbers which are only 0 and 1. Therefore, in binary, this (0-
255) range can be wri en as (00000000 – 11111111). Since each number N can be
represented by a group of 8-digit binary digits. So, a whole IPv4 binary address can be
represented by 32-bits of binary digits. In IPv4, a unique sequence of bits is assigned to a
computer, so a total of (2^32) devices approximately = 4,294,967,296 can be assigned with
IPv4.
IPv4 can be wri en as:
[Link]

2. IPv6:
But there is a problem with the IPv4 address. With IPv4, we can connect only the above
number of 4 billion devices uniquely, and apparently, there are much more devices in the
world to be connected to the internet. So, gradually we are making our way to IPv6 Address
which is a 128-bit IP address. In human-friendly form, IPv6 is wri en as a group of 8
hexadecimal numbers separated with colons (:). But in the computer-friendly form, it can be
wri en as 128 bits of 0s and 1s. Since, a unique sequence of binary digits is given to
computers, smartphones, and other devices to be connected to the internet. So, via IPv6 a
total of (2^128) devices can be assigned with unique addresses which are actually more than
enough for upcoming future genera ons.
IPv6 can be wri en as:
[Link]

Classifica on of IP Address
An IP address is classified into the following types:
1. Public IP Address:
This address is available publicly and it is assigned by your network provider to your router,
which further divides it to your devices. Public IP Addresses are of two types,

 Dynamic IP Address: When you connect a smartphone or computer to the internet,

your Internet Service Provider provides you an IP Address from the range of available
IP Addresses. Now, your device has an IP Address and you can simply connect your
device to the Internet and send and receive data to and from your device. The very
next me when you try to connect to the internet with the same device, your provider
provides you with different IP Addresses to the same device and also from the same
22

available range. Since IP Address keeps on changing every me when you connect to
the internet, it is called a Dynamic IP Address.
 Sta c IP Address: Sta c address never changes. They serve as a permanent internet
address. These are used by DNS servers. What are DNS servers? Actually, these are
computers that help you to open a website on your computer. Sta c IP Address
provides informa on such as device is located on which con nent, which country,
which city, and which Internet Service Provider provides internet connec on to that
par cular device. Once, we know who is the ISP, we can trace the loca on of the device
connected to the internet. Sta c IP Addresses provide less security than Dynamic IP
Addresses because they are easier to track.

2. Private IP Address:
This is an internal address of your device which are not routed to the internet and no exchange
of data can take place between a private address and the internet.

3. Shared IP addresses:
Many websites use shared IP addresses where the traffic is not huge and very much
controllable, they decide to rent it to other similar websites so to make it cost-friendly. Several
companies and email sending servers use the same IP address (within a single mail server) to
cut down the cost so that they could save for the me the server is idle.

4. Dedicated IP addresses:
A dedicated IP Address is an address used by a single company or an individual which gives
them certain benefits using a private Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) cer ficate which is not in the
case of a shared IP address. It allows to access the website or log in via File Transfer Protocol
(FTP) by IP address instead of its domain name. It increases the performance of the website
when the traffic is high. It also protects from a shared IP address that is black-listed due to
spam.

Introduc on of Classful IP Addressing

IP address is an address having informa on about how to reach a specific host, especially
outside the LAN. An IP address is a 32 bit unique address having an address space of 232.
Generally, there are two nota ons in which IP address is wri en, do ed decimal nota on and
hexadecimal nota on.
23

Do ed Decimal Nota on:

Some points to be noted about do ed decimal nota on:

 The value of any segment (byte) is between 0 and 255 (both included).
 There are no zeroes preceding the value in any segment (054 is wrong, 54 is correct).

Classful Addressing
The 32-bit IP address is divided into five sub-classes. These are:
Class A
Class B
Class C
Class D
Class E
Each of these classes has a valid range of IP addresses. Classes D and E are reserved for
mul cast and experimental purposes respec vely. The order of bits in the first octet
determines the classes of IP address.
IPv4 address is divided into two parts:

 Network ID
 Host ID
The class of IP address is used to determine the bits used for network ID and host ID and the
number of total networks and hosts possible in that par cular class. Each ISP or network
administrator assigns IP address to each device that is connected to its network.
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Class A:
IP address belonging to class A are assigned to the networks that contain a large number of
hosts.

 The network ID is 8 bits long.

 The host ID is 24 bits long.
The higher order bit of the first octet in class A is always set to 0. The remaining 7 bits in first
octet are used to determine network ID. The 24 bits of host ID are used to determine the host
in any network. The default subnet mask for class A is 255.x.x.x. Therefore, class A has a total
of:

 2^7-2= 126 network ID (Here 2 address is subtracted because [Link] and 127.x.y.z are
special address.)
 2^24 – 2 = 16,777,214 host ID
IP addresses belonging to class A ranges from 1.x.x.x – 126.x.x.x
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Class B:
IP address belonging to class B are assigned to the networks that ranges from medium-sized
to large-sized networks.

 The network ID is 16 bits long.

 The host ID is 16 bits long.
The higher order bits of the first octet of IP addresses of class B are always set to 10. The
remaining 14 bits are used to determine network ID. The 16 bits of host ID is used to determine
the host in any network. The default sub-net mask for class B is 255.255.x.x. Class B has a total
of:

 2^14 = 16384 network address

 2^16 – 2 = 65534 host address
IP addresses belonging to class B ranges from 128.0.x.x – 191.255.x.x.

Class C:
IP address belonging to class C are assigned to small-sized networks.

 The network ID is 24 bits long.

 The host ID is 8 bits long.
The higher order bits of the first octet of IP addresses of class C are always set to 110. The
remaining 21 bits are used to determine network ID. The 8 bits of host ID is used to determine
the host in any network. The default sub-net mask for class C is 255.255.255.x. Class C has a
total of:

 2^21 = 2097152 network address

 2^8 – 2 = 254 host address
IP addresses belonging to class C ranges from 192.0.0.x – 223.255.255.x.
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Class D:
IP address belonging to class D are reserved for mul -cas ng. The higher order bits of the first
octet of IP addresses belonging to class D are always set to 1110. The remaining bits are for
the address that interested hosts recognize.
Class D does not possess any sub-net mask. IP addresses belonging to class D ranges from
[Link] – [Link].

Class E:
IP addresses belonging to class E are reserved for experimental and research purposes. IP
addresses of class E ranges from [Link] – [Link]. This class doesn’t have any sub-
net mask. The higher order bits of first octet of class E are always set to 1111.

Summary of Classful addressing:

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Problems with Classful Addressing:

The problem with this classful addressing method is that millions of class A address are
wasted, many of the class B address are wasted, whereas, number of addresses available in
class C is so small that it cannot cater the needs of organiza ons. Class D addresses are used
for mul cast rou ng and are therefore available as a single block only. Class E addresses are
reserved.
Since there are these problems, Classful networking was replaced by Classless Inter-Domain
Rou ng (CIDR) in 1993.

OSPF
h ps://[Link]/topics/ospf-protocol/
h ps://[Link]/ospf-protocol

BGP
h ps://[Link]/topics/computer-network/bgp-border-gateway-protocol/