Layer 3 – Network Layer

• The network layer is responsible for

navigating the data through the
network.
– The function of the network layer is to find
the best path through the network
– The network layer's addressing scheme is
used by devices to determine the
destination of data as it moves through
the network
 Layer 3 – Network Layer
• Network layer is responsible for moving data
through a set of networks (internetworks)
• Protocols that have no network layer can
only be used on small internal networks
• The network layer use a hierarchical
addressing scheme that allows for unique
addresses across network boundaries
• Also provides a method for finding a path for
data to travel between networks
 Layer 3 – Segmentation
• There are two primary reasons why
multiple networks are necessary:
– the growth in size of each network
– the growth in the number of networks
• network segments - break it up into
smaller pieces; results in the network
becoming a group of networks, each
requiring a separate address
 Layer 3 – Devices
• Routers are internetworking devices which
operate at OSI Layer 3; pass data packets
between networks based on Layer 3
information
• Routers make logical decisions regarding
the best path for the delivery of data on an
internetwork and then direct packets to the
appropriate output port and segment (Layer
3 switching)
 Layer 3 – Path Determination
• Path Determination - enables a router
to evaluate the available paths to a
destination, and to establish the
preferred handling of a packet
• The router uses the network address to
identify the destination network of a
packet within an internetwork
 Layer 3 – Addressing
• Hosts have two addresses:
– MAC
– Network
• When you physically move a computer
to a different network, the computer
maintains the same MAC address, but
you must assign it a new network
address
 Layer 3 – Addressing
• flat addressing scheme assigns a
device the next available address
(MAC)
• Internet Protocol (IP) is the most
popular implementation of a
hierarchical network addressing
Layer 3 – Addressing
 Layer 3 – Network layer fields
• The IP packet consists of the data from upper
layers plus an IP header, which consists of:
– version - indicates the version of IP currently used
(4 bits)
– IP header length (HLEN) - indicates the datagram
header length in 32 bit words (4 bits)
– type-of-service - specifies the level of importance
that has been assigned by a particular upper-layer
protocol (8 bits)
– total length - specifies the length of the entire IP
packet, including data and header, in bytes (16 bits)
Layer 3 – Network layer fields
– identification - contains an integer that identifies the
current datagram (16 bits)
– flags - a 3-bit field in which the 2 low-order bits control
fragmentation – one bit specifying whether the packet
can be fragmented, and the second whether the packet
is the last fragment in a series of fragmented packets (3
bits)
– fragment offset - the field that is used to help piece
together datagram fragments (13 bits)
– time-to-live - maintains a counter that gradually
decreases, by increments, to zero, at which point the
datagram is discarded, keeping the packets from
looping endlessly (8 bits)
Layer 3 – Network layer fields
– protocol - indicates which upper-layer protocol receives
incoming packets after IP processing has been completed
(8 bits)
– header checksum - helps ensure IP header integrity (16
bits)
– source address - specifies the sending node (32 bits)
– destination address - specifies the receiving node (32 bits)
– options - allows IP to support various options, such as
security (variable length)
– data - contains upper-layer information (variable length,
maximum 64 Kb)
– padding - extra zeros are added to this field to ensure that
the IP header is always a multiple of 32 bits
 Layer 3 – IP Addresses

• IP address is represented by a 32 bit

binary number
• IP addresses are expressed as dotted-
decimal numbers - we break up the 32
bits of the address into four octets (an
octet is a group of 8 bits).
Layer 3 – IP Addresses
• network number of
an IP address
identifies the
network to which a
device is attached
• host portion of an IP
address identifies
the specific device
on that network
Layer 3 – IP Addresses
• There are three classes of IP
addresses that an organization
can receive from the American
Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN)
• Class A, B, and C
– Class A addresses for
governments throughout
the world
– Class B addresses for
medium-sized companies
– All other requestors are
issued Class C addresses
 Layer 3 – IP Addresses
• Class A
– first (leftmost) bit of a Class A address is always 0
– which will range from 0-126
– use only the first 8 bits to identify the network part of the address ;
remaining three octets can be used for the host portion of the address
• Class B
– first two bits (leftmost) of a Class B address is always 10
– which will range from 128-191
– Use the first 16 bits to identify the network part of the address ; remaining
two octets can be used for the host portion of the address
• Class C
– first three bits (leftmost) of a Class C address is always 110
– which will range from 192-223
– use the first 24 bits to identify the network part of the address ; remaining
octets can be used for the host portion of the address
Layer 3 – IP Addresses
 Layer 3 – IP Addresses

• IP addresses are usually written in

dotted decimal notation
 Layer 3 – IP Addresses

• An IP address that ends with binary 0s

in all host bits is reserved for the
network address (sometimes called the
wire address)
• If you wanted to send data to all of the
devices on a network, you would need
to use a broadcast address
 Layer 3 – Subnetting

• Network administrators sometimes

need to divide networks, especially
large ones, into smaller networks –
subnetworks/subnets
• To create a subnet address, a network
administrator borrows bits from the
original host portion and designates
them as the subnet field
 Layer 3 – Subnetting

• subnet mask - determines which part of

an IP address is the network field and
which part is the host field
• subnet mask is 32 bits long and has 4
octets, just like an IP address
 Layer 3 – Subnetting

• The Internet knows your network as a

whole, identified by the Class A, B, or
C address, which defines 8, 16, or 24
routing bits (the network number)
Layer 3 – Private Addresses