Skip to main content

Notes on IP Classification

Hi,

This post will be on Networks - IP Classification



         When Internet addresses were standardized (early 1980s), the Internet address space was divided up into classes:
Class A: Network prefix is 8 bits long
Class B: Network prefix is 16 bits long
Class C: Network prefix is 24 bits long

         Each IP address contained a key which identifies the class:
Class A: IP address starts with “0”
Class B: IP address starts with “10”
Class C: IP address starts with “110”


 

Class
Leading
bits
Size of network
number
bit field
Size of rest
bit field
Number
of networks
Addresses
per network
Start address
End address
Class A
0
8
24
128 (27)
16,777,216 (224)
0.0.0.0
127.255.255.255
Class B
10
16
16
16,384 (214)
 65,536 (216)
128.0.0.0
191.255.255.255
Class C
110
24
8
2,097,152 (221)
    256 (28)
192.0.0.0
223.255.255.255
Class D (multicast)
1110
 not defined
 not defined
    not defined
    not defined
224.0.0.0
239.255.255.255
Class E (reserved)
1111
 not defined
 not defined
    not defined
    not defined
240.0.0.0
255.255.255.255


CIDR - Classless Interdomain Routing
         CIDR notation can nicely express blocks of addresses
         Blocks are used when allocating IP addresses for a company and for routing tables (route aggregation)
         New interpretation of the IP address space
         Restructure IP address assignments to increase efficiency
         Permits route aggregation to minimize route table entries
              CIDR Block Prefix                # of Host Addresses
                  /27                                                 32
                  /26                                                 64
                  /25                                                 128
                  /24                                                 256
                  /23                                                 512
                  /22                                                 1,024
                  /21                                                 2,048
                  /20                                                 4,096
                  /19                                                 8,192
                  /18                                                 16,384
                  /17                                                 32,768
                  /16                                                 65,536
                  /15                                                 131,072
                  /14                                                 262,144
                  /13                                                 524,288


Comments