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Made Easy: Variable Length Subnet Masks VLSM
Made Easy: Variable Length Subnet Masks VLSM
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VLSM Made Easy Chika Nwokeoma
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VLSM Made Easy Chika Nwokeoma
Contents
………………………………………………………………………………………..
IP Addressing Overview.....4
. What an IP Address?.......4
. IP Address Format..........5
. IP Address Class and Range......6
Planning to Address the Network....8
. Why Plan, design and document....8
The Use of a hierarchal or structural IP Addressing
Scheme...9
. Benefits of a hierarchical network design...9
The use of Subnet in Structuring the Network....12
. Let’s talk Subnet Mask.....12
Humans see Decimals; Computer sees Binary.....13
. IP Address Classes, decimals and binary
Summarized....14
Basic Subnetting Process....21
Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM)....24
Benefits of VLSM:....24
Implementing VLSM....25
VLSM Practice....33
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VLSM Made Easy Chika Nwokeoma
IP Addressing Overview
My aim of writing this eBook is to teach you how to subnet using VLSM the easy way. I
will not go into those technical jargons; I will try as much as possible to use a layman’s
language to pass my message through. For those of us who expect CCNA technical
jargons; forgive me, I follow and work out everything in live my own way and learn
jargons later!
I promised myself to go straight to VLSM, but I won’t be doing some readers justice
without giving an overview of what IP addressing is. If you are writing the CCNA exam
or you are a network administrator, the thorough knowledge of TCP/IP especially IP
addressing and subnetting is a must!
What an IP Address?
For your letter to reach its location, it must be addressed properly with the destination
country , when it get there, the post office will narrow it down to the state or province,
town, village and finally the street and house number then to the intended individual.
With this house number, you can send and receive letters.
The communication between hosts or devices (PCs, server, printers) on different
network is made possible through IP addresses..
Before we go further, let’s see how to find your ip address of your computer.
The easiest way is to use the command prompt; for other ways see ways to find your IP
address.
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The IP address of your Computer will be displayed with the network mask and dns
server ip as the case may be
Now…what about the subnet mask; I could hear you ask, don’t worry, we will go fully
into that as we proceed.
A proper IP address is divided into two parts: The Host Address and The Network
Address.
The host part of the address identifies the individual nodes or machines. (Just as a
number identifies a house in a street) While he network address portion identifies the
network or network segment on which the host or machines are located. (Just as the
post code locates a town or village where a house is)
IP addresses are divided into three main classes (five actually), these are Class A, Class
B and Class C.
(Class D addresses are used for multicasting, and Class E addresses are reserved for
testing future use.)
IP Address Format
A usable IP address is 32-bit (binary) which is broken up into four octets (parts), and is
set into a dotted−decimal notation pattern.
An octet is a set of 8 bits. Below is an example of an IP address with its four octets
arranged into its dotted−decimal pattern:
192.168.10.41
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The diagram below will help you understand the classes, bits and octets, if it doesn’t,
don’t worry, as we go on; you will. Just stay with me.
Class A:
Class A addresses
Class A IP addresses use the first 8 bits (first octet) to designate the network address. The other 24
bits or (Three Octets) are for the host address.
There are 16,777,214 host addresses available in a Class A address.
Class B IP addresses
Class B addresses use the first 16 bits (two octets) for the network address. The last
two octets are used for the host address. The first 2 bits, which are always 1s and 0s,
designate the address as a Class B address, and 14 bits are used to designate the
network. This leaves 16 bits (two octets) to designate the hosts.
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Class C IP addresses
Class C addresses use the first 24 bits (three octets) for the network address, and only
the last octet for host addresses. The first 3 bits of all class C addresses are set to 1 1
0, leaving 21 bits for the network address, which means there can be 2.097,150 Class C
networks, but only 254 hosts per network.
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It’s a well recommended practice for a network administrator not to randomly allocated
address space in an organization’s network. A well designed or structured network
address provides network scalability and should be planned and documented.
The diagram below shows two examples; one representing a non-hierarchical and the
other a hierarchical addressing. Both examples use the same network topology. Only
the addressing scheme changed.
Switched LAN's at the Access Layer connect to a Distribution Layer router, which
connects to a Core Layer router, which in turn connects to the internet.
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In the hierarchical network addressing design, there is a logical grouping of networks address:
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These are some of the reasons to divide the network into subnets:
• Physical location
• Logical grouping
• Security
• Application requirements
• Broadcast containment
• Hierarchical network design
In order to use subnetting to structure the network, it is very important to have a clear
understanding of the structure of the subnet mask.
The subnet mask is a 32-bit value that differentiates between the network bits and the
host bits. It consists of a string of 1s followed by a string of 0s. The 1 bit represents the
network portion and the 0 bits represent the host portion.
To get clearer perspective of this, look back at the diagram on IP addressing overview.
The 255 part of it represents the network portion and the 0 parts represents the host
portion
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Ok, this might sound out of place, but emphatically, what we see is different from how
the computer sees it. For example; right click on any webpage, click on the “view
source” from the pop up menu window and you get to see how computer sees the
webpage you are seeing!
Same goes to IP addressing and subnet masks. Humans see decimals, but computer
sees and calculates in binary.
Firstly, below is a cram table as I called it, this table will give you a quick access,
especially on the day of your CCNA exam or when addressing a subnetwork.
Is not enough to pass the CCNA exam, anyone can do it these days by purchasing
question dumps. But how will tour performance be in the real world!
I know this part will be somehow difficult and boring, but if you want to be good
in your subnetting; you need to learn the breakdown below; in detail about
decimal and binary conversion.
Study the decimal and binary parts carefully; you will notice how bits are turned
on from 0 to 1 to turns it into a network: (remember the Subnet mask
determines the location of the network). Study this from time to time, is no
rocket science!!
One bit is borrowed from the host part below: (see the bold 1s)
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Class B
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Using the cram table makes subneting on any of the classes easier.
When using a hierarchical addressing scheme, the subnet mask reveals so much
information about the IP and network address.
For example, an IP address of 192.168.10.45 /27 shows the following information:
Given the above IP address, with the slash notation or CIDR, you will know (following
the cram table) that /27 means the subnet mask will be 255.255.255.224.
This means that 3 additional host bits were borrowed with the bit value of 32 and this
creates 6 subnets (2^3 = 6). Now this will accommodate 30 usable host addresses (32,
but 2 reserved for network and broadcast)
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Example 2
If you look at the cram table, /26 means 2 bit value was borrowed from the host bits of
the network to create a subnet.
Bits value: 128+64=192.
If we have to continue:
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Refresher:
Basic subnetting does not scale well in a large network. A
subnet of /26 is required to accommodate only network
segment of 58 hosts. Using a basic subnetting scheme is
not only wasteful, but creates only four subnets. But with
VLSM concept, you can subnet a subnet. VLSM allows the
use of different masks for each subnet.
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Route summarization helps to reduce the size of routing tables in distribution and core
routers, and the Smaller the routing tables, the less CPU time for routing lookups.
Don’t get me wrong, basic subnetting is only works well for smaller networks but does
not offer the flexibility needed in larger networks.
Most classless routing protocols support the use of VLSM because the subnet mask is
sent with all routing update packets. Classless routing protocols include RIPv2, EIGRP,
and OSPF.
Benefits of VLSM:
• Allows efficient use of address space
• Allows the use of multiple subnet mask lengths
• Breaks up an address block into smaller blocks
• Allows for route summarization
• Provides more flexibility in network design
• Supports hierarchical enterprise networks
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Implementing VLSM #1
To really understand how VLSM works, you need to be clear on how block sizes work to
create a VLSM subnet masks.
For example, when you have host requirement of 52, then you will need the block size
of 64, if you require 13 host, you have to work with block size 16.
Even if you need 45 hosts, block size of 64 will have to be your choice. You don’t cut
corners by trying to create or make up block sizes! That’s why the cram table is so
effective.
Example:
Let’s use the topology below as an example on how you can use VLSM to break up a
subnet into smaller portions for use on serial links so as to save IP address wastage,
mind you each network is has an equal host range of 30:
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Now if you remember earlier we defined VLSM as subnetting a subnet. Below, the IP
address 192.168.10.0 (which is a subnet) will be broken down further; into smaller
networks. Listed below are available subnets, and a list of Variable Length Subnets for
the mentioned network subnet.
First Network Subnet Address: 192.168.10.32 /27 (if you look at the cram table, you
will see that 3 bits were borrowed and this accommodates 30 usable host addresses, 2
is reserved for network and broadcast address.)
As mentioned earlier, each network is has an equal host range of 30. In each block, we
reserved 2 for network and broadcast addressing.
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Let’s look at another practice example, this time; we will work with different host
ranges with different network masks for different router interfaces.
Scenario
Suppose as a network Administrator, you are presented with the following requirements
and network IP 192.168.10.0 /26:
• London HQ = 58 host addresses
• Aberdeen HQ = 26 host addresses
• Quebec HQ = 10 host addresses
• Idaho HQ = 10 host addresses
• WAN links = 2 host addresses (each)
When implementing this VLSM subnetting scheme, we have to allow for some growth in
the number of hosts. This is the whole essence of VLSM Subnetting.
We will start from the largest to the smallest. According to the requirement, London,
the largest requires 58 hosts.
If we follow the cram table, we will have to borrow 2 bits to use /26.
192.168.10.0/26
– This will give us 62 usable host addresses reserving 2 for network and broadcast, with
the subnet mask of 192
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We will use the next available network which is 192.168.10.64/27 (because of the number of host:
28)
To minimize the waste of addresses, we are going to borrow 3 bits. If you look at the cram table, an
address block of /27 will be sufficient:
Next Network will start at 192.168.10.96 (That is 64 + 32 = 96 due to the network requirement of 10
hosts, and leaves some for expansion.)
The 3 bits borrowed will accommodate our requirement at this time with different subnet mask.
Next Network will start at 192.168.10.112 (That is 96 + 16 = 112 due to the network requirement of
10 hosts)
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Next subnets will be for the WAN Links, which are point-to-point links. This require 2 addresses
spaces each and will begin from: 192.168.10.128
WAN 1
Network address: 192.168.10.128 /30
Host range: 192.168.10.129 to 192.168.10.130 /30
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.252
Broadcast: 192.168.10.131
Both routers will be assigned with an IP each and the remaining 2 addresses will be for network and
broadcast.
WAN 2
Network: 192.168.10.132 /30
Host range: 192.168.10.133 to 192.168.10.134
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.252
Broadcast: 192.168.10.135
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WAN 3
Network: 192.168.10.136 /30
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.252
Host range: 192.168.10.137 to 138
Broadcast: 192.168.10.139
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Refresher…
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VLSM Practice
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VLSM Activity 1
Test your skills by filling in the appropriate values to complete the IP addressing structure
required.
IP Address 200.199.90.0
28
25
12
IP Address 172.17.10.0
24
25
10
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Try and have put the cram table in your head, this will
help you to understand how IP addressing and
subnetting works. Follow this procedure:
Web Resources
http://www.tcpipguide.com/
http://www.9tut.com
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk365/technologies_tech_note09186a00800a67f5.shtm
http://www.subnetting-secrets.com/vlsm.html
http://www.techexams.net/forums/ccna-ccent/19607-vlsm-practice.html
http://www.certforums.com/forums/general-cisco-certifications/19828-vlsm-
examples.html
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