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1) Classful Addressing: Classes and Blocks

Classful addressing divides the IPv4 address space into classes (A, B, C, D, E) based on the first bits of the address. Each class has a fixed number of network addresses and host addresses per network. This led to inefficient address allocation and eventual depletion of available addresses. Classless addressing was introduced to allow flexible allocation of address blocks of variable sizes to networks based on their needs.

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334 views

1) Classful Addressing: Classes and Blocks

Classful addressing divides the IPv4 address space into classes (A, B, C, D, E) based on the first bits of the address. Each class has a fixed number of network addresses and host addresses per network. This led to inefficient address allocation and eventual depletion of available addresses. Classless addressing was introduced to allow flexible allocation of address blocks of variable sizes to networks based on their needs.

Uploaded by

sureshguruji
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1) Classful Addressing

IPv4 addressing used the concept of classes. This architecture is known


as classful addressing.

In the classful addressing, there are 5 classes in which the address space is
divided: A, B, C, D, and E.

Each class occupies some fraction of the address space.

We can find the class of an address when given the address in binary notation
or dotted-decimal notation by checking the first few bits or first byte.

Classes and Blocks


There is a problem with the classful addressing that is "each class is divided
into a fixed number of blocks with each block having a fixed size".

Class name Number of blocks Block size Application

A 128 16,777,216 Unicast

B 16,384 65,536 Unicast

C 2,097,152 256 Unicast

D 1 268,435,456 Multicast

E 1 268,435.456 Multicast

The "class A addresses" are designed for large organizations to manage a


large number of attached hosts or routers.

The "class B addresses" are designed for midsize organizations to manage


tens of thousands of attached hosts or routers.

The "class C addresses" are designed for small organizations to manage a


small number of attached hosts or routers.

2) Classless Addressing
Classful addressing leads to address depletion. That's the big issue for this
schema and that's why it's not used nowadays.

To overcome the problem of address depletion and to give more


organizations access to the Internet, the classless addressing was designed
and implemented. In this scheme of classless addressing, there are no classes,
but the addresses are still granted in blocks.

Address Blocks
In classless addressing, when an entity(organization or a single household
(small organization) or whatever which uses the internet) needs to be
connected to the Internet, it is granted a block (range) of addresses. The size
of the block (the number of addresses) varies based on the nature, size, and
need of the entity.

For example, a household (small organization) may be given only two


addresses; a large organization may be given thousands of addresses. On the
other hand. An ISP, as the Internet service provider, may be given hundreds of
thousands based on the number of customers it may serve.

Three restrictions on classless address blocks:

1. The addresses in a block must be contiguous that means one after


another.
2. The number of classless addresses in a block must be a power of 2.
3. The first address must be evenly divisible by the number of addresses.

Introduction of Classful IP Addressing


IP address is an address having information about how to reach a specific host,
especially outside the LAN. An IP address is a 32 bit unique address having an
address space of 232.
Generally, there are two notations in which IP address is written, dotted decimal
notation and hexadecimal notation.
Dotted Decimal Notation:

Hexadecimal Notation:

Some points to be noted about dotted decimal notation:


1. The value of any segment (byte) is between 0 and 255 (both included).
2. There are no zeroes preceding the value in any segment (054 is wrong, 54 is
correct).
 
Classful Addressing
The 32 bit IP address is divided into five sub-classes. These are:
 Class A
 Class B
 Class C
 Class D
 Class E
Each of these classes has a valid range of IP addresses. Classes D and E are
reserved for multicast and experimental purposes respectively. The order of bits in
the first octet determine the classes of IP address.
IPv4 address is divided into two parts:
 Network ID
 Host ID
The class of IP address is used to determine the bits used for network ID and host ID
and the number of total networks and hosts possible in that particular class. Each
ISP or network administrator assigns IP address to each device that is connected to
its network.
Note: IP addresses are globally managed by Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority(IANA) and regional Internet registries(RIR).
Note: While finding the total number of host IP addresses, 2 IP addresses are not
counted and are therefore, decreased from the total count because the first IP
address of any network is the network number and whereas the last IP address is
reserved for broadcast IP.
Class A:

IP address belonging to class A are assigned to the networks that contain a large
number of hosts.
 The network ID is 8 bits long.
 The host ID is 24 bits long.
The higher order bit of the first octet in class A is always set to 0. The remaining 7
bits in first octet are used to determine network ID. The 24 bits of host ID are used to
determine the host in any network. The default subnet mask for class A is 255.x.x.x.
Therefore, class A has a total of:
 2^7-2= 126 network ID(Here 2 address is subracted because 0.0.0.0 and
127.x.y.z are special address. )
 2^24 – 2 = 16,777,214 host ID
IP addresses belonging to class A ranges from 1.x.x.x – 126.x.x.x

Class B:
IP address belonging to class B are assigned to the networks that ranges from
medium-sized to large-sized networks.
 The network ID is 16 bits long.
 The host ID is 16 bits long.
The higher order bits of the first octet of IP addresses of class B are always set to
10. The remaining 14 bits are used to determine network ID. The 16 bits of host ID is
used to determine the host in any network. The default sub-net mask for class B is
255.255.x.x. Class B has a total of:
 2^14 = 16384 network address
 2^16 – 2 = 65534 host address
IP addresses belonging to class B ranges from 128.0.x.x – 191.255.x.x.

Class C:
IP address belonging to class C are assigned to small-sized networks.
 The network ID is 24 bits long.
 The host ID is 8 bits long.
The higher order bits of the first octet of IP addresses of class C are always set to
110. The remaining 21 bits are used to determine network ID. The 8 bits of host ID is
used to determine the host in any network. The default sub-net mask for class C is
255.255.255.x. Class C has a
total of:

 2^21 = 2097152 network address


 2^8 – 2 = 254 host address
IP addresses belonging to class C ranges from 192.0.0.x – 223.255.255.x.

Class D:
IP address belonging to class D are reserved for multi-casting. The higher order bits
of the first octet of IP addresses belonging to class D are always set to 1110. The
remaining bits are for the address that interested hosts recognize.
Class D does not posses any sub-net mask. IP addresses belonging to class D
ranges from 224.0.0.0 – 239.255.255.255.

Class E:
IP addresses belonging to class E are reserved for experimental and research
purposes. IP addresses of class E ranges from 240.0.0.0 – 255.255.255.254. This
class doesn’t have any sub-net mask. The higher order bits of first octet of class E
are always set to 1111.
sub-net mask. The higher order bits of first octet of class E are always set to 1111.

Range of special IP addresses:


169.254.0.0 – 169.254.0.16 : Link local addresses
127.0.0.0 – 127.0.0.8 : Loop-back addresses
0.0.0.0 – 0.0.0.8 : used to communicate within the current network.
Rules for assigning Host ID:
Host ID’s are used to identify a host within a network. The host ID are assigned
based on the following rules:
 Within any network, the host ID must be unique to that network.
 Host ID in which all bits are set to 0 cannot be assigned because this
host ID is used to represent the network ID of the IP address.
 Host ID in which all bits are set to 1 cannot be assigned because this
host ID is reserved as a broadcast address to send packets to all the hosts
present on that particular network.
Rules for assigning Network ID:
Hosts that are located on the same physical network are identified by the network ID,
as all host on the same physical network is assigned the same network ID. The
network ID is assigned based on the following rules:
 The network ID cannot start with 127 because 127 belongs to class A
address and is reserved for internal loop-back functions.
 All bits of network ID set to 1 are reserved for use as an IP broadcast
address and therefore, cannot be used.
 All bits of network ID set to 0 are used to denote a specific host on the
local network and are not routed and therefore, aren’t used.
 Summary of Classful addressing :

 Problems with Classful Addressing:


 The problem with this classful addressing method is that millions of class A
address are wasted, many of the class B address are wasted, whereas,
number of addresses available in class C is so small that it cannot cater the
needs of organizations. Class D addresses are used for multicast routing and
are therefore available as a single block only. Class E addresses are
reserved.

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