IP Subneting

HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY
College of Computing and Informatics

Information Technology Department
ITEC 484
NETWORK DESIGN AND
ADMINISTRATION
CHAPTER 2: TCP/IP Fundamentals, IP

Addressing and Subnetting
Compiled by: Dr. Patrick D. Cerna
Compiled by: Dr. Patrick D. Cerna Network Design and Administration Page 1
TCP/IP Fundamentals
Now that you have learned some of the popular protocols that exist in the TCP/ IP
protocol suite, this section will introduce you to the configuration of TCP/IP by
discussing the addressing scheme and rules for assigning an address to a system.
TCP/IP Settings
TCP/IP is a protocol that requires a little bit of knowledge to configure the systems
properly. When you configure TCP/IP, you are required to know the settings for the IP
address, subnet mask, and default gateway. Let’s start with the IP address!
IP Address
The IP address is a 32-bit value that uniquely identifies the system on the network (or
the Internet). An IP address looks similar in appearance to 192.168.1.15. There are four
decimal values in an IP address separated by periods (.). Each decimal value is made
up of 8 bits (1s and 0s), and there are four decimal values, so 8 bits times 4 equals the
32-bit address.
Since each of the decimal values is made up of 8 bits (for example, the 192), we refer to
each of the decimal values as an octet. There are four octets in an IP address. It is very
important to understand that the four octets in an IP address are divided into two
parts—a network ID and a host ID. The subnet mask determines the
number of bits that make up the network ID and the number of bits that make up the
host ID. Let’s see how this works.
Subnet Mask
When looking at a subnet mask, if there is a 255 in an octet, then the corresponding
octet in the IP address is part of the network ID. For example, if I had an IP address of
192.168.1.15 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, the first three octets would make up
the network ID and the last octet would be the host ID. The network ID assigns a unique
address to the network itself, while the host ID uniquely identifies the system on the
network. Table 4-1 summarizes this example. You can see in Table 4-1 that the network
ID (shown with an ―N‖) is 192.168.1, and the host ID is the last octet with a value of 15.
This means that this system is on the 192.168.1 network and any other system on the
same network will have the
same network ID.
To use a different example, if I had a subnet mask of 255.0.0.0, it would mean that the
first octet of the IP address is used as the network ID portion, while the last three octets
are the host ID portion of the IP address.
Default Gateway
When your system wants to send data to another system on the network, it looks at its
own network ID and compares that to the destination system’s IP address. If it appears
that they both have the same network ID, the data is sent directly from your system to
the destination system. If the two systems are on different networks, your system must
pass the data to the router so that the router can send the data to the destination
system’s router.
Understanding Binary
You know from the previous discussion that the IP address is a 32-bit address divided
into four 8-bit blocks (called octets). The four octets are normally displayed as decimal
values but also have a binary representation that looks like
11000000 10101000 00000001 00001111
Notice that there are four sets of 8 bits (1 or 0), which makes up the 32 bits (8 × 4 sets)
of an IP address. Let’s take a look at how you can determine the binary representation
of an octet. The values of the 8 bits within the octet are shown in
Looking at Table 4-3, you can see that the first bit in an octet (far right) has a decimal
value of 1, the second bit has a decimal value of 2, the third bit has a decimal value of
4, and the values keep doubling with each additional bit. You can also see that the
eighth bit has a decimal value of 128. The first bit is known as
the least significant bit or low-order bit, while the eighth bit is known as the most
significant bit or high-order bit.
To calculate the binary value of an octet with a decimal number such as 192, you need
to enable, or turn on, the bits that will add up to the number of 192, as shown in Table 4-
4.
Address Classes
Every IP address belongs to a distinct address class. The Internet community defined
these classes to accommodate networks of various sizes. The class to which the IP
address belongs initially determines the network ID and host ID portions of the address,
along with the number of hosts that are supported on that network. The different class
addresses are named class A, class B, class C, class D, and class E. This section
details each class of addresses.
Class A Addresses
A class A address has a default subnet mask of 255.0.0.0, which means that the first
octet is the network ID and the last three octets belong to the host ID portion of the
address. Each octet can contain 256 possible values (0–255), so a class A address
supports 16,777,216 hosts on the network (256 × 256 × 256).
Class B Addresses
Class B addresses have a default subnet mask of 255.255.0.0, which means that the
first two octets are the network ID and the last two octets are the host ID portion of the
address. This means that we can have 65,536 hosts (256 × 256) on the network.
Class C Addresses
Class C addresses have a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, which means that the first
three octets are the network ID and the last octet is the host ID. Having only one octet
as the host ID means that a class C address
can support only 254 hosts (256 – 2) on the network.
Class D Addresses
Class D addresses are used for special types of applications on the network known as
multicasting pplications.
Class E Addresses
The funny thing about class E addresses is that they were designed for experimental
purposes only, so you will never see a class E address on a network
Private Addresses
Another type of address you need to be aware of is what is known as a private address.
A private address is an address that can be assigned to a system but cannot be used
for any kind of Internet connectivity. The private addresses are nonroutable addresses,
so any system using them will not be able to function off the network. The following are
the three address ranges that are private:
 10.0.0.0–10.255.255.255
 172.16.0.0–172.31.255.255
 192.168.0.0–192.168.255.255
IPv6
Our entire discussion so far about TCP/IP is based on version 4 of TCP/IP, known as
IPv4. The use of TCP/IP over the years has far exceeded expectations, and we are
running out of IP addresses. For that reason, TCP/IP has been redesigned and the new
version is IP version 6 (IPv6).
There are major changes to IPv6 from what we know of IPv4. For starters, IPv4 uses a
32-bit address scheme, while IPv6 will use a 128-bit address scheme. This will give us
an insane number of unique possible addresses—3.4 × 1038 to be exact (2128)! This is
a huge improvement over 232=4 billion unique addresses with IPv4. An IPv6 address
will no longer use four octets. The IPv6 address is divided into eight hexadecimal values
that are separated by a colon (:) as shown in the following example:
65b3:b834:45a3:0000:0000:762e:0270:5224
TCP/IP Ports
An application or process uses a TCP/IP port as an identifier for that application running
on a system. When you send data from one computer to another, you send data to the
port used by that application. For example, when you type the IP address of a web site
in your web browser, the web browser connects to the web server (or web application)
running at that system by sending data to port 80 (shown in Figure 4-4).
Port 80 is the default port of a web server. When the web server answers your request
by sending the web page to your browser, the browser is running on a particular port as
well and the web server sends the page to the port of the web browser.
IP SUBNETTING
The purpose of subnetting is take one address range that you have and break it down
into multiple address ranges so that you can assign each address range to a separate
network (subnet) in your internetwork (network made up of multiple networks). You may
have multiple networks due to physical locations, or maybe you
have one location, but because you want to cut down on traffic, you have decided to
segment your one network into multiple network segments by placing a router in
between each network segment.
There are loads of reasons in favor of subnetting, including the following benefits:
Reduced network traffic

We all appreciate less traffic of any kind. Networks are no different. Without trusty
routers, packet traffic could grind the entire network down to a near standstill. With
routers, most traffic will stay on the local network; only packets destined for
other networks will pass through the router. Routers create broadcast domains. The
more broadcast domains you create, the smaller the broadcast domains and the less
network traffic on each network segment.
Optimized network performance

This is a result of reduced network traffic.
Simplified management
It’s easier to identify and isolate network problems in a group of smaller connected
networks than within one gigantic network.
Facilitated spanning of large geographical distances

Because WAN links are considerably slower and more expensive than LAN links, a
single large network that spans long distances can create problems in every area
previously listed. Connecting multiple smaller networks makes the system more
efficient.
How to Create Subnets

To create subnetworks, you take bits from the host portion of the IP address and
reserve them to define the subnet address. This means fewer bits for hosts, so the more
subnets, the fewer bits available for defining hosts. Later in this chapter, you’ll learn how
to create subnets, starting with Class C addresses. But before you actually implement
subnetting, you need to determine your current requirements as well as plan for future
conditions.
To create a subnet follow these steps:
1. Determine the number of required network IDs:
 One for each subnet

 One for each wide area network connection
2. Determine the number of required host IDs per subnet:
 One for each TCP/IP host
 One for each router interface

3. Based on the above requirements, create the following:
 One subnet mask for your entire network

 A unique subnet ID for each physical segment
 A range of host IDs for each subnet
Subnet Masks
For the subnet address scheme to work, every machine on the network must know
which part of the host address will be used as the subnet address. This is accomplished
by assigning a subnet mask to each machine. A subnet mask is a 32-bit value that
allows the recipient of IP packets to distinguish the network ID portion of the IP address
from the host ID portion of the IP address. The network administrator creates a 32-bit
subnet mask composed of 1s and 0s. The 1s in the subnet mask represent the positions
that refer to the network or subnet addresses. Not all networks need subnets, meaning
they use the default subnet mask. This is basically the same as saying that a network
doesn’t have a subnet address. Table 3.1 shows the default subnet masks for Classes
A, B, and C. These default masks cannot change. In other words, you can’t make a
Class B subnet mask read 255.0.0.0. If you try, the host will read that address as invalid
and usually won’t even let you type it in. For a Class A network, you can’t change the
first byte in a subnet mask; it must read 255.0.0.0 at a minimum. Similarly, you cannot
assign 255.255.255.255, as this is all 1s—a broadcast address. A Class B address
must start with 255.255.0.0, and a Class C has to start with 255.255.255.0.
References:
 Glen E. Clarke, CompTIA Network+, 4th ed., 2009 Mc Graw Hill

 Priscilla Oppenheimer, Top down Network Design, 2004, Cisco Press
 Todd Lammle, CCNA Study Guide, 7th Ed., 2009, Sybex

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HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY

College of Computing and Informatics

CHAPTER 2: TCP/IP Fundamentals, IP

Compiled by: Dr. Patrick D. Cerna

11000000 10101000 00000001 00001111

Reduced network traffic

Optimized network performance

Facilitated spanning of large geographical distances

How to Create Subnets

To create a subnet follow these steps:

1. Determine the number of required network IDs:

 One for each subnet

 One for each TCP/IP host

 One for each router interface

 One subnet mask for your entire network

 Glen E. Clarke, CompTIA Network+, 4th ed., 2009 Mc Graw Hill

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