IP Addressing and Subnetting

IP Addressing Review:
• Network and Host Boundaries

Distinguishing Between Classes of Addresses

• When you’re talking about the highest order
bit or bits, this includes all 32 bits of the
IP address. Therefore, the address’s class can
be determined by looking at the very first bit
to the left of the address (the most
significant bit).
• If the first octet contains 10000001, this
represents 129 in decimal, which would be a
Class B address. Given the aforementioned
distinctions with the assigned high-order bit
values, it is easy to tell which class of
network numbers a particular address belongs
to.
Distinguishing Between Classes of Addresses
• In Class A addresses, 0 (in the first octet)
is reserved; it represents “all” IP addresses
and is commonly used as a default route. The
address 127 is also reserved for a loopback,
 which is used for local testing function. In
Class E, 255 is reserved and is used as a
local broadcast—all IP devices in a broadcast
domain, such as a segment or virtual LAN
(VLAN). Also, remember that there are three
classes of private addresses: Class A,
10.0.0.0; Class B, 172.16.0.0–172.31.0.0; and
Class C, 192.168.0.0–192.168.255.0.
Subnetting
• Subnetting allows you to take some of the
higher-order host bits in a network number and
use them to create more networks.
• In the process of creating more networks, each
of these additional networks has a lesser
number of hosts. These smaller networks are
commonly called subnets.
• A Class C network has 8 host bits, giving you
a total of 256 addresses. Of these 256
addresses, you can use only 254 for host
devices, such as PCs, routers, and servers.
• Let’s assume that you use the highest order
bit to create more networks, leaving 7 bits
for host addresses. With this example, you are
creating two subnets: 21 = 2.
• In this formula, the 1 is the number of subnet
bits. In each of these subnets you have 126
host addresses: 27 – 2 = 126. Originally, you
lost two addresses in a Class C network. Now
that you have two subnets, you are losing a
total of four addresses. However, the
advantage of subnetting is that you now have
two networks instead of one!
Subnet Masks
• The function of the subnet mask is to
differentiate among the network address, the
host addresses, and the directed broadcast
address.
• Like an IP address, a subnet mask is 32 bits
long. In binary, a 1 in a bit position in the
subnet mask represents a network component and
a 0 in a bit position represents a host
component.
• One restriction of subnet masks is that all
the network bits (1s) must be contiguous and
all the host bits (0s) are contiguous.
• INVALID
11110000.00001111.11111111.11111111
(240.31.255.255)
• VALID
11111111.11111111.11111111.11111000
(255.255.255.248)
A demonstration using a Class C network:
• Dotted-decimal 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0
• Number of networking bits 192.168.1.0/24
• Hexadecimal 192.168.1.0 0xFFFFFF00
• Binary 192.168.1.0
1111111111111111111111100000000

Subnet Mask Values

• Valid Subnet Mask Values in an Octet

 • One important item to point out is that the
subnet mask, in and of itself, means nothing
without the context of the IP address
associated with it. For example, most people
would assume that when you see a subnet mask
of 255.255.255.0, you are dealing with a Class
C network.
Subnet Masks for Class A Networks
Subnet Masks for Class B Networks

Subnet Masks for Class C Networks

IP Address Planning
Six-step approach plan for IP addressing:
1. Determine network and host requirements.
2. Satisfy host and network requirements.
3. Determine the subnet mask.
4. Determine the network addresses.
5. Determine the directed broadcast addresses
for your networks.
6. Determine the host addresses for your
networks.

1: Determine Network and Host Requirements

• Determine the number of hosts that do, or
will, exist on the largest segment in your
network.
• Determine the maximum number of segments that
you have in your network—this will tell you
how many networks, or subnets, you’ll need.
Step 2: Satisfy Host and Network Requirements
• 2S >= number of networks you need (S
represents subnet bits)
• 2H – 2 >= number of hosts on your largest
segment (H represents host bits)
• S + H <= total number of host bits you have
for a class of address
Step 3: Determine the Subnet Mask
• Given this, you can just add the class address
bits to the subnet bits, and this gives you
the total number of networking bits. In this
example, 24 + 4 = 28.
• To make the remaining three steps easier, you
can convert the number of bits of the subnet
mask to a dotted-decimal mask.
Step 4: Determine the Network Addresses

Step 5: Determine the Directed Broadcast

Addresses

Step 6: Determine the Host Addresses

Determining IP Address Components
Six-Step Approach for Determining IP Address
Components
1. You need an IP address and a subnet mask
(this is the easy part).
2. Examine the subnet mask and find the
interesting octet. The interesting octet in
the mask is the one in which the network and
host boundary are found. This includes the
following mask values in an octet: 0, 128,
192, 224, 240, 248, 252, and 254. It does not
include 255—an octet with a mask value of 255
(all 8 bits are 1s) indicates that this octet
is part of the network number. Only when an
octet contains one or more binary 0s does it
have a host component.
3. Subtract the interesting octet in the
subnet mask from 256. This will give you the
increment by which network numbers are
increasing in the interesting octet.
4. On a piece of paper, start writing down the
network numbers, starting with the first
subnet (0), and working your way up to a
network number that is higher than the address
in question.
Determining IP Address Components
• Example #1 for Determining IP Address
Components
Example #2 for Determining IP Address Components

Example #3 for Determining IP Address Components

Determining Network, Directed Broadcast, and Host

Components
1. You are given the following address:
192.168.1.63/255.255.255.248. What type of
address is this—network, directed broadcast, or
host?
• The interesting octet is the fourth: 248.
Subtract this from 256: 256 – 248 = 8. Network
numbers are incrementing by 8: 192.168.1.0,
192.168.1.8, 192.168.1.16, 192.168.1.24,
192.168.1.32, 192.168.1.40, 192.168.1.48,
192.168.1.56, 192.168.1.64, and so on and so
forth. After writing down the directed
broadcast addresses, you’ll see that the
network 192.168.1.56 has a directed broadcast
 address of 192.168.1.63 and host address of
57–62. Therefore, this is a broadcast address.
2. You are given the following address:
172.16.4.255/255.255.252.0. What type of address
is this—network, directed broadcast, or host?
• The interesting octet is the third: 252.
Subtract this from 256: 256 – 252 = 4. Network
numbers are incrementing by 4 in the third
octet: 172.16.0.0, 172.16.4.0, 172.16.8.0,
172.16.12.0, and so on and so forth. After
writing down the directed broadcast addresses,
you’ll see that the network 172.16.4.0 has a
directed broadcast address of 172.16.7.255 and
host addresses of 172.16.4.1–172.16.7.254.
Therefore, this is a host address.