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Wednesday, February 25, 2009
IP Addressing and Subnetting
Introduction
This document gives you basic information needed to configure your router for routing IP, such as how addresses are broken down and how subnetting works. You learn how to assign each interface on the router an IP address with a unique subnet. There are many examples to help tie everything together.
Prerequisites
Requirements
There are no specific prerequisites for this document.
Components Used
This document is not restricted to specific software and hardware versions.
Additional Information
If definitions are helpful to you, use these vocabulary terms to get you started:
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Address—The unique number ID assigned to one host or interface in a network.
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Subnet—A portion of a network sharing a particular subnet address.
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Subnet mask—A 32-bit combination used to describe which portion of an address refers to the subnet and which part refers to the host.
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Interface—A network connection.
If you have already received your legitimate address(es) from the Internet Network Information Center (InterNIC), you are ready to begin. If you do not plan to connect to the Internet, Cisco strongly suggests that you use reserved addresses from RFC 1918.
Conventions
Refer to Cisco Technical Tips Conventions for more information on document conventions.
Understanding IP Addresses
An IP address is an address used to uniquely identify a device on an IP network. The address is made up of 32 binary bits which can be divisible into a network portion and host portion with the help of a subnet mask. The 32 binary bits are broken into four octets (1 octet = 8 bits). Each octet is converted to decimal and separated by a period (dot). For this reason, an IP address is said to be expressed in dotted decimal format (for example, 172.16.81.100). The value in each octet ranges from 0 to 255 decimal, or 00000000 - 11111111 binary.
Here is how binary octets convert to decimal: The right most bit, or least significant bit, of an octet holds a value of 20. The bit just to the left of that holds a value of 21. This continues until the left-most bit, or most significant bit, which holds a value of 27. So if all binary bits are a one, the decimal equivalent would be 255 as shown here:
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 (128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1=255)
Here is a sample octet conversion when not all of the bits are set to 1.
0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
0 64 0 0 0 0 0 1 (0+64+0+0+0+0+0+1=65)
And this is sample shows an IP address represented in both binary and decimal.
10. 1. 23. 19 (decimal)
00001010.00000001.00010111.00010011 (binary)
These octets are broken down to provide an addressing scheme that can accommodate large and small networks. There are five different classes of networks, A to E. This document focuses on addressing classes A to C, since classes D and E are reserved and discussion of them is beyond the scope of this document.
Note: Also note that the terms "Class A, Class B" and so on are used in this document to help facilitate the understanding of IP addressing and subnetting. These terms are rarely used in the industry anymore because of the introduction of classless interdomain routing (CIDR).
Given an IP address, its class can be determined from the three high-order bits. Figure 1 shows the significance in the three high order bits and the range of addresses that fall into each class. For informational purposes, Class D and Class E addresses are also shown.
Figure 1
3an.gif
In a Class A address, the first octet is the network portion, so the Class A example in Figure 1 has a major network address of 1.0.0.0 - 127.255.255.255. Octets 2, 3, and 4 (the next 24 bits) are for the network manager to divide into subnets and hosts as he/she sees fit. Class A addresses are used for networks that have more than 65,536 hosts (actually, up to 16777214 hosts!).
In a Class B address, the first two octets are the network portion, so the Class B example in Figure 1 has a major network address of 128.0.0.0 - 191.255.255.255. Octets 3 and 4 (16 bits) are for local subnets and hosts. Class B addresses are used for networks that have between 256 and 65534 hosts.
In a Class C address, the first three octets are the network portion. The Class C example in Figure 1 has a major network address of 192.0.0.0 - 233.255.255.255. Octet 4 (8 bits) is for local subnets and hosts - perfect for networks with less than 254 hosts.
Network Masks
A network mask helps you know which portion of the address identifies the network and which portion of the address identifies the node. Class A, B, and C networks have default masks, also known as natural masks, as shown here:
Class A: 255.0.0.0
Class B: 255.255.0.0
Class C: 255.255.255.0
An IP address on a Class A network that has not been subnetted would have an address/mask pair similar to: 8.20.15.1 255.0.0.0. To see how the mask helps you identify the network and node parts of the address, convert the address and mask to binary numbers.
8.20.15.1 = 00001000.00010100.00001111.00000001
255.0.0.0 = 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000
Once you have the address and the mask represented in binary, then identifying the network and host ID is easier. Any address bits which have corresponding mask bits set to 1 represent the network ID. Any address bits that have corresponding mask bits set to 0 represent the node ID.
8.20.15.1 = 00001000.00010100.00001111.00000001
255.0.0.0 = 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000
-----------------------------------
net id | host id
netid = 00001000 = 8
hostid = 00010100.00001111.00000001 = 20.15.1
Understanding Subnetting
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.
Each data link on a network must have a unique network ID, with every node on that link being a member of the same network. If you break a major network (Class A, B, or C) into smaller subnetworks, it allows you to create a network of interconnecting subnetworks. Each data link on this network would then have a unique network/subnetwork ID. Any device, or gateway, connecting n networks/subnetworks has n distinct IP addresses, one for each network / subnetwork that it interconnects.
In order to subnet a network, extend the natural mask using some of the bits from the host ID portion of the address to create a subnetwork ID. For example, given a Class C network of 204.17.5.0 which has a natural mask of 255.255.255.0, you can create subnets in this manner:
204.17.5.0 - 11001100.00010001.00000101.00000000
255.255.255.224 - 11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000
--------------------------|sub|----
By extending the mask to be 255.255.255.224, you have taken three bits (indicated by "sub") from the original host portion of the address and used them to make subnets. With these three bits, it is possible to create eight subnets. With the remaining five host ID bits, each subnet can have up to 32 host addresses, 30 of which can actually be assigned to a device since host ids of all zeros or all ones are not allowed (it is very important to remember this). So, with this in mind, these subnets have been created.
204.17.5.0 255.255.255.224 host address range 1 to 30
204.17.5.32 255.255.255.224 host address range 33 to 62
204.17.5.64 255.255.255.224 host address range 65 to 94
204.17.5.96 255.255.255.224 host address range 97 to 126
204.17.5.128 255.255.255.224 host address range 129 to 158
204.17.5.160 255.255.255.224 host address range 161 to 190
204.17.5.192 255.255.255.224 host address range 193 to 222
204.17.5.224 255.255.255.224 host address range 225 to 254
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About the Author:Ahamed Razzan(MCP, CCNA, Dip.in Java Programming.)
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