Why Do We Need Addresses

• Computer networks contain large numbers of devices.

• Just as with houses on a street or mobile phones, we need a way
to identify each device to communicate with it.
• To do this, each device on the network is given a unique address,
called an IP (Internet Protocol) address.
 IP Address Versions
• There are two versions of IP address in use today.
• IP Version 6 was created because The Internet was running out of
available IP Version 4 addresses

IP Version 4 IP Version 6
Activate 1981 Activated 1999
32 bit 128 bit
4 groups of numbers 8 groups of letters and numbers
4.3 billion addresses 340 undecillion addresses
192.168.0.1 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
 IP V4 Addresses
• An IP V4 address has 4 groups of numbers known as octets
• Each octet is 8 bit, which means it can be between 0 and 255
• This is known as dotted decimal notation
• This makes IPV4 addresses easy for humans to read and
understand

192.168.0.0
10.80.255.255
219.2.122.87
 IP V4 Addresses in Binary
• Computers communicate in binary
• This means IP Addresses must be converted to binary for the
computer to understand them
• To do this, we convert each octet from decimal to binary

11011011.00000010.01111010.01010111
219.2.122.87
00001010.01010000.11111111.11111111
10.80.255.255
 Network Addresses
• A network will usually only use a single range of addresses, for
example, between 10.90.0.0 to 10.90.255.255
• The first part of the address is known as the Network Identifier
• The network identifier is the same for all devices on the network
• The second part of the address is known as the Device Identifier
• The device identifier is different for each device on the network

10.90.88.22
Network Identifier Host Identifier
 Subnets
• Networks can be divided into smaller parts known as subnets
• The subnet mask is used to tell us which parts of the IP address are
the network identifier and which are the device identifier
• A subnet mask is written in the same dotted decimal notation as an IP
address

10.90.88.22 255.255.0.0
IP Address Subnet Mask
 Subnet Masks
• Networks can be divided into smaller parts known as subnets
• A subnet mask is used to tell us which parts of the IP address are the
network identifier and which are the device identifier
• A subnet mask is written in the same dotted decimal notation as an IP
address
• When converting both the IP address and subnet mask to binary, a 1 in the
subnet mask identifies the network part of the address and a 0 the host part of
the address
Network Identifier 10.90.88.22 Host Identifier
00001010.01011010.01011000.00010110
255.255.0.0
11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000
 Reserved Subnet Addresses
• The first address in the subnet is known as the network address
• This is used to identify the subnet as a whole
• The last address in the subnet is known as the broadcast address
• Traffic sent to the broadcast address will be sent onto every
device within the network
• These are special addresses and cannot be used by devices
 Routable and Non Routable Addresses
• There are 3 groups of IP Addresses which can be used only on private
networks
• These are called private addresses or non routable addresses since
they cannot be routed on The Internet
• Internet routers will discard traffic with non routable IP addresses
• IP addresses which can be routed on The Internet are known as public
addresses or routable addresses
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
 Network Address Translation
• Network Address Translation or NAT allows many devices on a private
to share a single routable IP Address
• It was designed to help with the shortage of IP addresses on The Internet
• NAT requires a router which sits between the private network and The
Internet
• The router swaps the source address on outgoing packets for a routable
IP address
• It then swaps back the destination
address on incoming packets to the
correct private address