IP Addressing and Subnetting - Essay Example

? IP ADDRESSING AND SUBNETTING by Introduction An IP address is referred to as an internet protocol address. It is a numerical figure that is given to a device be it a laptop printer and so on, involved in a computer network and uses IP for communication. An IP address has some basic functions that include hosting and location addressing is crucial since any device connected to a network needs to have something that makes it be identified. These identifiers are the one referred to as the internet protocols which are numerical figures that identifies a device connected to a network. IP addressing therefore means assigning these figures to a device so that it can be identified. On the other hand a sub network, also known as subnet is a sub division of an IP network, which makes sub netting to be the division of an IP network (Blank 2004). There exists two main versions of internet protocol which include internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) and internet protocol version 6 (IPv6).since these versions contain an endless pools of numbers, for IPv4, this pool of numbers is 32 bits written as (232) and contains 4,294,967,296 IPv4 addresses, where bits refer to a digit in the form of binary system which is used in storing information. For IPv6 version, it has 128-bits written as (2128) containing 340,282,366,920,938,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IPv6 addresses. These two versions are assigned to a given network in different sizes. The size assigned is shown after an oblique, and it reflects the number of IP addresses contained in it. The lower the number after the oblique the more the number of addresses the protocol size has (Groth 2005). Since an internet protocol is made up of 32 binary bits, they are subdivided into network and host sections. The network portion identifies the particular network that it is connected to whereas the host portion identifies a node, be it a computer, on the local area network (LAN). This is aided by the use of subnet mask, which is described as a 32 binary bits combination that is these octets used to show which section or portion of an IP address refers to a subnet and the other tat refers to the host. The 32 binary bits are subdivided onto octets where octet holds 8 bits making a total of four octets. These octets are then turned into decimals and separated by a period. This is why an IP address is expressed in decimal with dots in between. The number of decimal in each octet ranges from 0-255 decimals or 00000000-11111111 binary (Groth 2005). As indicated above, a subnet mask helps to know which section of the internet protocol identifies a given network and the section of the IP that identifies the nodes. If we have a network with a natural mask of 255.0.0.0 which has not been sub netted, it would have an address close to 8.20.15.1255.0.0.0.converting these addresses and masks to binary numbers, and we would have 8.20.15.1 = 00001000.00010100.00001111.00000001 255.0.0.0 = 11111111.00000000.00000000.00000000 There different types of IP addressing and each have their own features. One of the forms includes the unicast. This is the most used concept of internet protocol addressing for both IPv4 and IPv6.it is used to refer to a single sender and a single receiver which could be used for sending and receiving. A unicast address is usually for a single host. Different devices have different unique unicast addresses, each with a different unique purpose. This means that for a person to data to many unicast addresses, he is required to send it many times to each recipient. The second type of IP address is the broadcast. Only IPv4 implements the broadcast addressing since IPv6 replaces broadcast with multicast addressing. For the IPv4, it is with ease to send data to all hosts. In the IPv4 address the address 255.255.255.255 is used to broadcast. The third type of addressing is the multicast addressing. Multicast address is linked with a group of recipient. For IPv4 addresses, given addresses 224.0.0.0 which uses 239.255.255.255, they can be allocated as multicast. This enables the sender to send a data from a unicast address to the multicast group of recipient while the routers make copies and sending them to all recipient that have joined the multicast group. The last type of IP addressing is the any cast type of addressing. It is designed that a single data is sent to many recipients, just like broadcast and multicast. There is a slight difference though, in that the data is not transmitted to the entire recipient but only where the router takes those who are closest to the network. It is only practicable in IPv6 (Lammle 2005). Using subnet mask it is possible to identify the network and host ID, in that any bit in the address which is close to the bits of the mask set to one and it is used to indicate the network ID. If any bit in the address is close to the bits in the mask close to zero, it is used to indicate the node ID. Sub netting is mostly used to divide a given class of network into a number of networks. It is crucial to subnet since it is unrealistic to use a single class of network. Any link to a given data in a given class of network has an independent network ID, in which any given node on the link belongs to the same class of network. Sub netting helps in creating a network of similar interconnecting sub networks, where just like any given class of network, in any link to a given data in these networks would have an independent sub network ID. This goes all the way connecting the networks with the internet protocol addresses in that when a given device is connected to a given class of network or sub network it should have unique internet protocol addresses one for every class of networks or sub network that it inter connects. This process of sub networking involves the distinction and separation of a class of network and sub network sections of an address from the host ( Deering& Hinden 1995). To create a subnet from a given class of network, it is crucial to expand the natural masks through the use of bits from the host section of the address in order to create a sub net ID. For instance, given a class of network with a natural mask of 255.255.255.0, it is possible to create a sub network. By expanding three bits is identified from the host section of the addresses and it would be used to make the required sub networks. i.e. 204.17.5.0 - 11001100.00010001.00000101.00000000 255.255.255.224 - 11111111.11111111.11111111.11100000 The three bits could be used to create eight subnets. This shows that sub netting is the process of allocating bits of the host section and arranging them with the network mask n order to create a sub network. The above masks can be denoted in a number of ways. Since these bits are more than the natural mask, the addresses can be indicated as a three-bit subnet mask, or be indicated as with a slash notion /27 as there 27 bits have been set in the mask. After sub netting, any available router is attached to a given sub network. In the above example, each router would have an internet protocol address for each sub network; be connected to four sub networks in which one of the sub network is common to two routers. This clearly indicates that each sub network would be capable to hold at least thirty host addresses. One important deduction from the above example is that if subnet mask uses more host bits, the more subnets that can be created. However, this may not be the case for more subnets, since the more the subnets that are available, the less it would make the availability of the host addresses per subnet ( Deering&Hinden 1995) Internet protocol (IPv4) sub netting As observed earlier, sub netting involves the distinction and the separation of the network and subnet section of an address from the host identifier. After the operation on the IP address and the network mask, a network prefix or in other words a network address and the host identifier is identified. For an IPv4, the network mask consists of 32 bits. Given an example of an address i.e192.168.5.130 and its network mask i.e. 255.255.255.0 the network prefix is 192.168.5 and the host identifier is 0.0.0.130. as from the above statement that sub netting involves the process of allocating bits on the higher hierarchy from the host part and arranging them alongside the network mask to form a subnet mask, it is possible to show it in an IPv4 address by moving 2 bits from the host section, to form four smaller subnets, then the sub net mask would be 255.255.255.192 and the network prefix would be 192.168.5.128 whereas the host part would be 0.0.0.2(Comer 2000) Sub netting for the different addresses differs. Sub netting for an IPv4 and IPv6 differs. For instance, the IPv6 space design differs from the IPv4 space design. The primary goal of sub netting in the IPv4 is to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the use of the limited address space available. These constraints are not the case in case of IPv6 sub netting since there exist huge space. Due to the limiting space of the IPv4, Classless inter domain routing (CIDR) has been useful in improving the internet protocol address space use and the scalability of the router in the internet. This was due to the expansion of the internet and the internet protocol routing tables in the routers. It concentrates away from the traditional internet protocol classes, e.g. class A, B among others. In (CIDR) an IP network has a prefix which is an IP address and is used to indicate the length of the natural mask. It also shows an ascending arrangement of the internet architecture, where each domain picks its internet protocol from the highest level (Deering, Hinden 1998). Reference list Blank, Andrew G. 2004, TCP/IP Foundations Technology Fundamentals for IT Success. San Francisco, London: Sybex, Comer, D 2000. Internetworking with TCP/IP:Principles, Protocols, and Architectures, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hal. Groth, D. and Toby S. 2005, Network + Study Guide, 4th Edition. San Francisco, London: Wiley Publishing, Inc., Lammle, Todd 2005 CCNA Cisco Certified Network Associate Study Guide 5th Edition, San Francisco, London: Sybex, Deering S. R. Hinden 1995 internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification Deering S. R. Hinden1998, Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification, The Internet Society Read More